


The Sleeping Prince

by itscoco



Series: Chronicles of Galadia [1]
Category: Minecraft (Video Game), Sleeping Beauty (1959), aphmau - Fandom
Genre: Book 1 of 4, F/M, Fighting A Dragon, Friends to Lovers, Gen, Magic, Minecraft Diaries - Aphmau, Minecraft MyStreet - Aphmau, Sleeping Beauty AU, Wizards, fairytale AU, we love a good travlyn story
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-18
Updated: 2020-12-18
Packaged: 2021-03-11 04:47:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 8
Words: 37,121
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28139427
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/itscoco/pseuds/itscoco
Summary: “I swear, I don’t know why I still come out here,” she said, a hint of a giggle in her voice. “You’re the worst.”“You know you’d miss me, Agapanthus,” Travis said, patting the old horse’s neck and shooting Agapanthus a wink. “We’re soulmates.”~~~Do you like Disney Sleeping Beauty? Do you like Aphmau? how bout PUT EM TOGETHER?? Add a few au elements, a little intrigue and mystery, maybe add a scene or two- and you get this, the first story in the CHRONICLES OF GALADIA- a minecraft diaries au I've been working on. Travis is the prince who was hidden away in the woods for 16 years of his life, and Katelyn is the princess he's unknowingly betrothed to. Another thing he doesn't know is that she's the girl who's been riding out to visit him for years.
Relationships: Katelyn/Travis Valkrum
Series: Chronicles of Galadia [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2062698
Kudos: 7





	1. Chapter 1

~

Once, many years ago, there were two kingdoms.

These two kingdoms were very close both in proximity and in relations. It was well-known throughout the land that the two kings of these kingdoms had been good friends since they were young, and the same could be said for the two queens. Because of the betrothal process, the four of them had spent plenty of time together throughout their lives and had been planning since they were teenagers to marry their future children to bring the two kingdoms together officially.

All was well.

Until one day.

Generations before these two kings came into power, there was a great wizard who lived in their land. He was infamous for his great amounts of power and even greater need to grow even more powerful. His greed led to his use of magic to sacrifice a number of innocent people, a deed truly unforgivable. The power gained from that sacrifice granted him the ability to evade the kingdom’s forces when they arrived to arrest him to be executed. He continued his life in exile, hiding in the mountains where no one dared approach. He came to be known as the Demon Warlock.

One fateful day, many years later, the kingdom was sent into uproar when it was discovered that the Demon Warlock had not spent all this time alone. Aside from his army of minions he had been creating, he had been receiving visits from the two queens. The rumour throughout the kingdoms was that they had been conspiring with him, helping him grow in power until he could overthrow the kings. It was believed the women had taking a liking to him.

For one of them, it was a bit more than a liking.

Amongst all the already existing chaos, the Demon Warlock admitted to having a romantic history with one of the queens. Between the two of them, Elizabeth and Enki, Elizabeth was far more secretive and was known to have a bit of an unfaithful history with her husband. Enki had claimed profusely that it had all just been a fun adventure for her and she had meant no harm. Enki was a sweet woman, beloved by the kingdom, so it was quickly deduced that the woman must have been Elizabeth. 

King Eric, her husband, couldn’t bear to execute her, especially since they had just had a baby who was barely a month old yet. Elizabeth was sent into exile, forced to live on the streets and to endure the insults and hatred of the country.

The land was quick to forgive Enki, especially when it was finally clear she and her husband, King Terrence, had succeeded in having a child of their own. The kingdom rejoiced, and arrangements were made immediately for their son and Eric’s daughter to be betrothed.

It seemed the kingdoms had found something to smile about again.

Nine months passed, and the child was born. A grand celebration was held all over Terrence and Enki’s kingdom, and all the nobility and high class was invited to the palace for a party for the new prince.

Our story begins on that joyful day.

But, as the royal family was fated to endure, the worst was yet to come.

~

The palace was brighter, louder, and fuller than it had been in a long time. The sweet spring air filtered in through the open windows and blew through the trees, creating a happy rustling sound that intermingled with the joyful shouts and conversations all over the castle and the surrounding villages. 

The party had just begun, and hundreds of well-dressed people bearing both the country’s colors and their personal colors of celebration were making their way into the palace and the grand hall. The sound of voices filled the air and flooded every staircase, every family and tribe there to try to get one look at the baby Prince Travis.

In the grand hall, the king and queen sat proudly on their thrones. A cradle adorned with green and gold sat between them, the newborn just barely visible from where they sat. His tiny chubby arms would flail around occasionally, like he was reaching for the hand-crafted mobile that hung above him. Occasionally one noble family or another would approach in an attempt to get a good look at him, but everyone knew it wasn’t their place to get too close. 

Suddenly trumpets blared, breaking through the steady rumble of voices. They blasted out a tune, signifying the arrival of someone important. The king and queen turned their attention to the harold on the balcony above them, who called out his announcement off a sheet of rolled-up parchment. 

“ _ Welcome, King Eric and Princess Katelyn! _ ”

A spattering of applause broke out among those in the grand hall, and the crowd parted down the middle to leave a clear stretch from the entrance to the thrones and cradle. The king of the neighboring kingdom stood at the entrance, beaming and holding his young daughter. They shared similar hues of pale blue hair, though the young princess’s was only a small tuft on top of her head. The king began to make his way down the path, grinning at King Terrence. Terrence returned the smile.

Eric approached the cradle, leaning over the side and looking down. His grin widened, seeing that the child had his mother’s snow-white hair and emerald-green eyes.

Eric adjusted his daughter so that she could see inside the cradle as well, but she was quite occupied with staring around the great hall, her large blue eyes darting around and taking it all in. The three adults chuckled at her disinterest, and Eric straightened back up to go stand beside his friend.

Suddenly the trumpets sounded again, but this time the attention was directed to a bright light that had suddenly begun to glow above the crowd.

“ _ Welcome, the three good wizards of the land!” _

The light gave a bright flash, and a person in red robes appeared beneath it.

“ _ Sir Dante!” _

Another flash, and a person in green appeared beside him.

“ _ Sir Laurence!” _

A third flash, and one more person in blue appeared with them.

“ _ And Sir Garroth!” _

The light faded, and the three men began to make their way towards the royal couple. The crowd parted once more, whispers of awe and admiration filling the air. These three men were famous for their magic, and they were supporters of the royals. They had offered to attend the party thrown in honor of the baby prince to bestow gifts upon him, as was customary when a new member of the royal family was born.

“Hello again, Your Highness!” Dante said brightly, nodding to King Terrence. 

“Congratulations!” Laurence added.

“Thank you,” Terrence said, still smiling broadly. “And thank you all for taking the time to come!”

“We wouldn’t miss it,” Garroth said, stepping up to the cradle. “Awww, he’s so  _ tiny. _ He definitely has your nose.”

Laurence frowned, looking down on the baby. “Are you blind?” he shot at Garroth. “That nose looks nothing like the king’s. He does have his chin, though.”

“Nah, that’s his mother’s chin.”

“You’re INSANE.”

“Well, you’re STUPID.”

“Cut it out, you two,” Dante snapped, elbowing Laurence so that he stumbled into Garroth. The two of them mumbled apologies as Dante looked back to the king and queen.

“We can each bestow one gift; no more, no less,” he explained, reaching into his pale red robe and pulling out a long, thin wand. “We’ll try our hardest to make them count.”

“We have faith in you,” Queen Enki said with a soft smile.

“Especially after you did so well with Katelyn!” King Eric exclaimed, bouncing the 10-month-old. “That gift of strength is something else. She almost broke a fork earlier this week, and she can’t even walk yet!”

“You’re welcome! Laurence chirped, smirking at Dante. He added in a whisper, “told you giving a princess the gift of strength was an awesome idea.”

Dante rolled his eyes, but smiled back at the royals. He raised his wand.

“For Prince Travis, I bestow the gift of charm,” he said. The tip of his wand began to glow, and a shower of pale red sparkles began drifting from it, landing softly on the sleeping baby’s face. “May he make friends everywhere he goes, and may everyone who knows him want to meet him again.”

The cradle began to glow with a rosey light, and Travis stirred slightly. The light faded, and the baby fell still again.

Dante backed out of the way as Laurence stepped up, drawing his wand out of his robe. 

“I bestow the gift of bravery to our young prince,” Laurence said, giving his wand a little wave. A shower of sparks similar to the previous one came out, bathing the crib in a forest green glow. “May he never back down in the face of danger and may he always have the courage to do what’s right.”

Dante frowned at Laurence as the crib went alight with green sparkles. “That’s the same gift I gave the princess!” he whispered.

“I know,” Laurence whispered back, tucking the still-glowing wand back into his robes. “I think it’s a good thing to have in common. They’re gonna get married one day, they might as well have a reason to get along.”

Dante opened his mouth, then closed it. That was fair.

Laurence edged out of the way, and Garroth stood before the crib. He pushed some of his wavy blonde hair out of his face, taking his wand out of his robes. He rose it, clearly thinking about something.

He finally came to a decision, clearing his throat. 

“My gift,” he began, “is-”

His sentence was cut off very abruptly by the two enormous doors to the Great Hall swinging open, shoving anyone standing near them against the wall and sending people stumbling into each other. As they opened, a cold wind billowed into the Hall, extinguishing every flame and sending a shiver across the crowd. 

Cold darkness settled over the people as a tall figure entered, wearing a hood of such a deep purple it could have been black. A strange sort of glow came from him.

Beside the kings, Enki felt her heart stop and her blood turn to ice.

“I-I I know him,” she whispered, barely audible. “That’s-!”

The figure lowered his hood as he approached the thrones, the crowd having backed up again out of habit, this time flattening themselves against the wall in fear of getting too close. The hood lowered to reveal two horns, black and gleaming. The horns adorned the head of a grey-haired man with skin almost the same shade. His eyes glowed with a dark and mysterious violet light that seemed to spark as he looked around the room.

His eyes finally settled on the cradle, and his mouth twisted into a grin.

“What a darling child,” the man said, his voice a low rumble, but somehow still clearly heard by everyone. “What a shame I wasn’t formally invited to come meet him. How peculiar.”

“ _ Demon Warlock _ ,” Eric breathed. 

Terrence stood quickly, pointing a shaky finger at him. “You!” he bellowed. “You are NOT allowed in the palace, much less in our kingdom. Leave at once.”

The Demon Warlock let out a cold laugh, and the three wizards by the thrones grouped together, reaching into their robes for their wands.

“Don’t!” The queen whispered. “He’ll destroy you!”

The Demon Warlock took a few steps closer to the crib, and the guards lining the walls began to close in brandishing weapons. The Warlock only chuckled, amused by their aggression. “What’s this? Am I not allowed to see the boy? I still don’t quite understand why I wasn’t invited.”

“You aren’t welcome here,” Garroth snarled, his hand still on his wand.

The Demon Warlock looked at the three wizards in mock surprise. “Not welcome-? Oh, my goodness. What a horrible misunderstanding. If I really am not wanted here, then I suppose I’ll just be on my way. My best wishes for the royal family and the precious newborn prince. Apologies.”

He turned, whisking his cloak around and sending another cold wind across the crowd. Eric, Enki, and Terrence all exchanged bewildered expressions. “And… you’re not offended?” Terrence called out, somewhat unwisely. 

The Demon Warlock froze, a smile creeping across his face.

“Offended?” he said, turning slowly back around. “Why, of course not. I’m overjoyed. He’s such a  _ stunning _ little boy. In fact…”

In another gust of freezing wind, he shot forward, stopping inches from the cradle. He grinned down on the baby, who had woken up and was starting to fuss.

“I think I’ll give him a little gift myself.”

The confusion in the room bubbled into horror as the Demon Warlock raised his arms, pulling a long staff out of thin air. A storm seemed to be brewing both outside and inside the Hall. Lightning flashed around the stone walls, echoing and mingling with the yells of the people.

“This prince may be brave and charming and beloved by all,” the Warlock boomed, “but he cannot be allowed to live. Every year that passes while this child walks freely under the sun, I will grow weaker. Every breath he takes will be like a knife in my chest. As punishment for his existence and the lies of the royal family, I bestow not a gift, but a curse.”

Confusion whirled around the crowd, and the royals looked at each other wildly. Lies? What could he possibly mean?

“Seize that creature!” Terrence bellowed frantically over the noise. As the guards rushed towards the man in the center of it all, he slammed his staff down on the marble floor. They were flung backwards as gold and purple flames sprung up in a circle around him. The searing heat sent anyone close to them scrambling backwards.

“By the time the sun sets on this child’s sixteenth birthday,” the Demon Warlock boomed, “his life will have ended. He will do something as simple as pricking his finger on a spinning wheel- and that will surely be HIS DEATH.”

A gasp rang out around the crowd. Queen Enki rushed forward, snatching the crying baby out of the crib, still wrapped up in all his blankets. She backed into the king’s arms as the two of them stared up at the Demon Warlock in horror.

“Guards!” Terrence yelled, the panic evident in his voice. Once more the guards rushed forward, but the flames prevented them from getting too close. The Demon Warlock let out a long, low cackle, rising off the floor in one last gust of frigid wind. The room exploded into a bright white light as lightning crashed.

The light faded. The candles were re-lit. And the Demon Warlock was gone, along with the unsettling cold and the storm.

The queen turned and buried her face in her husband’s shoulder, letting out muffled sobs. She cradled the baby between them, and the king wrapped his arms around the two of them.

“What are we g-going to do?” she sobbed, her tears dripping onto the baby’s blankets.

“We… we can only do what we know to right now,” Terrence said, thinking to himself. “We have to do what we can to protect our son.”

At this, the queen’s sobs intensified. The king hugged her tighter, looking to Dante, Laurence, and Garroth. “Surely you can undo this,” he said, his voice pleading. “ _ Surely  _ my son doesn’t have to die.”

Dante glanced sadly back at the other two wizards, then looked to King Terrence. “There isn’t much we can do to combat any magic the Demon Warlock casts. But…”

He turned around, making eye contact with Garroth. The blue wizard straightened up, looking between Terrence and Dante.

“We can help. At least a little. Garroth still has his gift.”

Realization dawned in Garroth’s eyes, and he pulled his wand out of his robes. Queen Enki pulled away from the king, holding her baby and watching Garroth as he approached. Garroth raised his wand. He looked back at the other two, who nodded encouragingly. 

“We can’t completely get rid of any kind of curse the Demon Warlock makes,” Garroth said. “But we do have another kind of magic- a sort of spell- that we don’t really tend to use. Just because it’s so specific. But in this case…

“If through this wicked demon’s trick

A spindle should your finger prick

A ray of hope there still may be in this

The gift i give to thee

Not in death, but just in sleep

The fateful prophecy you will keep

And from this slumber you shall wake

When true love’s kiss the spell shall break.”

The crowd watched as deep blue sparkles gently rained on the baby’s head. A soft sort of sky-colored light filled the room, bringing back some of the warmth.

Garroth stepped back down the steps, putting the wand away. “I’m sorry. That’s all I can do to help.”

“Thank you,” the king said sincerely. “It may not be all I hoped, but it is something. In the meantime…” 

He looked up, searching the crowd. His gaze landed on one of the members of the palace staff, a young maid staring helplessly at the scorch marks on the floor with a mop and a bucket of water.

“You,” the king called, making her jump. “Alert the palace staff and any members of the village guard to spread the word. I want every spinning wheel in this kingdom destroyed. I never want to see a single one as long as our son is alive, which he will  _ remain _ . Bring them all to the palace court. We’ll create a bonfire, we’ll burn them all. Now go.”

The maid was already gone, scrambling out of the Great Hall through the servant’s entrance.

“You three,” the king shot, directed back at the three wizards. They jumped, whipping around to face him.

“I beg of you, find a way to protect our son,” he said, looking back down at the child. He had fallen back asleep, nestled between his parents. “We will do what we can, but you all possess a magic that will prove to be far more useful. Can you find a more permanent solution to this curse?”

Dante turned back to the other two, who stared at each other with wide eyes.

“We will do anything we can,” Dante said with a nod.


	2. chapter 2

~

Just as the king had decreed, every spinning wheel in the kingdom and the surrounding villages were brought to the palace and burned, despite how odd the request may have seemed to some. It created a massive bonfire in the center of the palace, casting an eerie orange light over everything for miles well into the night. The king and queen watched from the windows of the palace, holding their only son close to them.

In the dark of the night, the three wizards remained at the castle. They sat alone in the Grand Hall, the only light being provided by a lone chandelier hanging above them and the vague lights of their wands. Laurence and Garroth sat on the steps leading up to the thrones as Dante paced back and forth in front of them, deep in thought.

Garroth was pointing his wand at a plate and a couple of forks, sending them dancing around each other aimlessly and creating a musical clinking that filled the silence of the Hall.

“This bonfire is great and all,” Laurence said, the soft orange light from outside casting shadows across his face, “but it really isn’t going to stop the demon warlock. He’d find a way to get a spinning wheel to the kid regardless.”

“Yeah, obviously,” Dante muttered. He looked up, the light of the fire flickering in his eyes. “Maybe… we can convince him to lay off.”

“Oh that is just _brilliant_ ,” Garroth said sarcastically, letting the plate and forks drop. “Let’s go have a chat with him. Should I bring the tea, or do you think he’ll have some already?”

“Bug off Garroth,” Dante said, frowning and beginning to pace again. “It’s not a horrible idea. If we could get to the root of the issue, there won’t be any need for violence.”

“No need for-?” sputtered Laurence. “He’s murdered innocent people just to get more power! He’s killing this kid for basically no reason! I vote we use our magic to get rid of _him._ He can’t prick any fingers if he’s dead.”

“No,” Dante shot, stopping where he stood. “This is what sets us apart from him. The only thing making us any different from the Demon Warlock is what we choose to do with our magic. We use ours for good. He uses his for unspeakable evil. We choose violence, we sink down to his level. And that’s not happening.”

“I mean, I guess,” Laurence grumbled, crossing his arms and leaning back. “It would still be nice though.”

“I just want to find a way to keep the prince safe,” Garroth said, putting his chin in his hands.

“We all do,” Dante said, his frown deepening as he began to pace again. “There has to be _some_ way. Something…”

He froze again, his eyes wide. Then he jumped, snapping his fingers. “I got it! I got it, I got it!”

Laurence and Garroth jumped up, running over to him.

“What?”

“What is it?”

Dante opened his mouth in excitement, then closed it quickly, his eyes darting around.

“No no, not here. We can’t just discuss this out in the open. The Demon Warlock has eyes and ears everywhere. The very walls could be listening in.”

Dante looked around frantically, running a hand through his curly dark blue hair. His eyes landed on the open door leading to the servant’s kitchen, where the wine glass cupboard was standing open.

“Follow me,” he whispered, whipping out his wand and pointing it at himself. A cascade of red sparkles fell over him, and he immediately shot down, shrinking to the size of a chess pawn. A tiny pair of bird wings appeared on his back, and he flapped quickly towards the cupboard. Laurence and Garroth quickly did the same, shrinking down and darting inside the cabinet behind him. As soon as they were all inside, Dante pointed his wand at the door, and it swung shut. He folded his wings onto his back and turned around to face Garroth and Laurence excitedly.

“We can turn him into a tree!” he exclaimed. “It’s just like that story of the sick girl who’s guardian wizard turned her into a tree so she wouldn’t die and would outlive her family! It’s foolproof!”

“And he can’t prick his finger because he doesn’t have any!” Garroth laughed, clapping a hand on Dante’s shoulder.

“He’ll be totally safe. The Demon Warlock isn’t gonna do anything to a freakin’ _plant_ -”

“What about a particularly rough winter?” Laurence broke in, staring at the ground. “All it takes is one good frost and the tree’s dead.”

“Ah- oh,” Dante faltered, frowning again. “Oh. Yeah. I guess you’re right.”

“And that’s such a wizard move,” Garroth added sadly, slumping against a porcelain teacup. “We’re always turning things into plants. It’s what he’d expect.”

“There’s gotta be SOMETHING we can do,” Dante said, sitting down on a glass plate. 

“What’s something the Demon Warlock _wouldn’t_ expect?” Laurence wondered, tapping his chin.

Garroth groaned. “He expects EVERYTHING. He’s all-knowing.”

“Now, that’s not true,” Laurence retorted. “He might be super powerful, but there are certain things you have to give up to have the amount of power that he does. Things like, love, or family. Or friendship.”

“That, I understand. If he had any friends before they’re all dead now. And if he used to be human, surely he had a family. Maybe that’s why he’s attacking this one. He can’t stand seeing the royal family happy, especially since he was buddies with the queen at one point.”

“Yeah. Huh. I wonder… why _does_ he want the prince dead so bad?”

Dante hadn’t been paying much attention to the conversation, and had been deep in thought. His eyes widened, an idea striking him all of a sudden.

“That’s it!”

He whirled around, causing Garroth and Laurence to pause in their conversation. 

“It’s the perfect plan,” he continued, beginning to pace again. “It’s the kind of thing he wouldn’t expect. He wouldn’t even think of it. Of course, it’s going to take a good deal of planning, and we’ll have to get the king and queen’s approval, they’re sure to object, and…”

Laurence grabbed Dante by the shoulders, stopping him in his tracks. “We need you to elaborate, bud,” he said.

“We need to talk to the king and queen about the three young peasant men raising a little boy in the cottage in the woods,” Dante said excitedly.

Laurence glanced over his shoulder at Garroth questioningly, but he looked equally bewildered.

“Who?”

“Turn around,” Dante said with a small smirk, pulling out his wand.

Still lost, Laurence and Garroth slowly turned to look over their shoulders as Dante pointed his wand at them.

Their clothes transformed just in time for them to see their reflections in the tall brass goblet behind them. They both stumbled back slightly in surprise to see that they were no longer wearing their wizard robes, but were instead wearing plain peasant clothes with smears of dirt here and there on their faces.

“What the- _us_?” Garroth shouted.

Laurence whipped back around to see that Dante had transformed his own clothes into that of a peasant. He grinned at them.

“Are you trying to say- are you saying _we’re_ going to raise the prince?”

“I think it’s a pretty good idea!” Dante said proudly. “We take him out to that cottage out abandoned in the forest, out in the middle of nowhere where it’d be impossible to find us, and keep him safe there.”

“ _Dante_ , that’s-”

“That’s brilliant!” Garroth said, spinning around with a smile. “I’ve always wanted a little kid to teach all my tricks to! And we get to be in charge of teaching him about the world, and being a prince, and holy CRAP! We’re gonna be closer to the future king than his own parents are!”

“Now, I don’t know about that, but-”

“And parenting will be super easy because we get to use magic!”

Dante paused, biting his lower lip.

“Uh oh,” Laurence muttered. “What’s that look mean?”

“We can’t,” Dante said, still thinking through it all. “We can’t use magic. It would be too dangerous. Sneaking off with the baby is dangerous enough, we can’t do ANYTHING to give ourselves away. Lemme see your wands.”

He snatched Garroth’s wand out of his hand before he could react, then went for Laurence’s. 

“Hey, hey!” Laurence objected, holding it out of Dante’s reach. “You’re kidding, right? Live like mortals? For _sixteen years_? We’ve never done anything like that before in our lives!”

“Well, there’s a first time for everything.”

“Just think this THROUGH! Who’s gonna do laundry? And cook and clean and stuff?”

“We’ll all pitch in. Just- give- me-!”

Dante’s hand closed around Laurence’s wand, and he yanked it out of his grasp. They both tripped and tumbled onto the ground. Laurence grumbled some choice words as the two of them stood up, Dante heading for the cabinet door. 

“Come on, we gotta go tell the king and queen-”

He paused, almost walking straight off the top shelf of the cupboard. He shook his head, pulling his wand out and waving it a few times. The three of them were encased in a red glow, drifting down to the floor before popping back up to their normal sizes. The three of them hurried off out of the kitchen, leaving a particularly baffled cook watching them leave.

That very night, the king and queen watched with heavy hearts as their most precious possession, their only son, disappeared into the night. The three wizards carefully hid themselves in the shadows as they faded into the darkness created by the trees. 

The queen shuddered next to her husband, not only in fear for her son’s future, but in anticipation of what her own future may entail. Most people have dark secrets, but hers was one that would be catastrophic in the wrong hands. And it could very well alter the future of her son as well as the entire kingdom.

The future of their kingdom was very unsure indeed.

~

SIXTEEN YEARS LATER

Deep within the mountains just outside the limits of the kingdom, in the ruins of a castle that had been in use many many generations before, a group of imps were entering the ruined throne room.

In the shadows, standing amongst the rubble and dead plants and stone, the Demon Warlock awaited their report.

The head imp, a leader of sorts, stood at the front of the group as they made their way across the broken rocks and stone. He cleared his throat, using a voice he had stolen from a villager not far from the mountains.

“We just finished searching the last of the region,” he said, addressing the Demon Warlock. I do not know what those mortals have done with the prince. It is like he simply vanished.”

“That’s impossible,” the Warlock muttered. “He has to be somewhere. I have to know where he is. They are _idiots_ to keep him from me. Where did you look?”

The imp looked behind him at the others, motioning for them to provide answers as well.

“Every village,” one piped up.

“Every house and every manor,” another added.

“We’ve checked every cradle in the land,” the head imp assured the Demon Warlock.

The Demon Warlock froze where he stood, slowly rising his head to look down on the imp.

“Every… cradle?”

“Yes sir, your excellency,” the imp said, nodding proudly. “We had to fight to get to some of them.”

The Demon Warlock said nothing for a moment. Then, something like a soft chuckle arose from him. The chuckles grew louder until he was laughing outright, his voice echoing all over the chamber. Unsure of what to do, the imps looked at each other in confusion and half-heartedly joined in on the laughter. Soon the entire room was filled with guffaws, though some of it was slightly unsure sounding.

“You FOOLS!” The Warlock finally bellowed, thrusting his staff in the air. Lightning crashed down before them, narrowly missing the front row of imps.

“IDIOTS!” Another vein of lightning crashed down, setting the stone on fire and lighting the room with a sinister green light. Imps went scattering as the floor gave out beneath them.

“ _IMBECILES_!” One final crash of lightning and thunder, and almost the entire room was alight with green and purple flame. Stone and rock rained from the ceiling and there was barely any floor left. The imps were scrambling all over the place, some hanging on by a finger and some crowding together against the walls.

“If a child has any human in them, they will _grow like one_. SIXTEEN YEARS HAS PASSED. He’ll almost be an adult by now,” the Demon Warlock called above the commotion. He lowered the staff, using his other hand to rub his forehead.

“So much lost time…” he grumbled. “You all were supposed to be helpful. If he comes of age, I’ll be undone. I will NOT ALLOW a CHILD to be the end of me.”

He raised his head once more to look around the room. Most of the imps had fled in the panic, aside from two or three who hung back cautiously.

“What do you want us to do, sire?” one of them asked.

The Demon Warlock thought for a moment, looking out the window to the distant outline of the palace on a hill far away. 

“No, I think you all are done searching,” he finally said, still looking at the palace. “I should have known better than to trust you half-wits with such an important job in the first place. Get out of my sight. Wait-”

Just before the last one could leave, the Warlock held out a hand. The imp stopped, looking back up at him.

“Bring my apprentice here,” he said. The imp nodded, scurrying off.

Hardly a moment passed before a young man entered, barely older than sixteen himself. He had pale skin, piercing blue eyes, and dark hair that hung over one of his eyes.

“Zane,” the Demon Warlock said, turning toward him. “It’s time for you to prove yourself. Do what those idiots could not. Go out into the kingdom and look for yourself. Find the young man of 16 years, hair as white as snow and eyes like emeralds.”

“I promise I won’t fail,” Zane said with a noticeably prideful smirk.

With that, he pulled a long stick that still had a leaf on it out of his pocket, pointing it at himself. He jumped up, transforming into a raven and soaring out the window and out of sight.

The Demon Warlock watched him as he went.

“If you do, on your life be it,” he growled. 

~

That dumb spider was inside the house again.

And this time, Travis was gonna GET it.

He slowly approached where the enormous spider was sitting on the desk, wooden cup in hand. Travis could swear this spider- this _specific_ spider- was both immortal and had some kind of grudge against him. If there was anything he had learned from Dante’s teachings about nature, it was that bugs die pretty quickly. But this huge spider with the white stripe had been showing up in Travis’s room every day for so long he had started calling it Jeremy.

Travis had exactly four spider-bites, one on his collarbone, one on his left arm, one on his stomach (somehow) and one on the bottom of his left foot. Each of them was certainly from Jeremy. Getting spider-bites from hanging around outside for too long was all fine and good. That was their turf. But inside his own house?

It couldn’t continue.

In one fluid motion, Travis sprang forward, slamming the cup down on top of the spider. The motion sent a couple pages scattering across the surface. Travis held the cup in place, breathing heavily and looking all around the desk frantically just to make sure Jeremy hadn’t somehow teleported away before he could bring the cup down. There was no sign of him.

Travis grinned smugly, repositioning himself so that one hand was on his hip and the other was holding the cup down with one finger. “Welllll, would you look who finally came out on top?” Travis said aloud, leaning down so that his face was right next to the cup. “Thought you could get away from _me_ , knave? In my own bedroom? Think again, you heathen. You absolute BUFFOON. You-”

“Travis? Who are you talking to up there?”

Travis jumped, looking down at where the muffled voice had come from downstairs. “S’just Jeremy!” he called, patting the cup.

There was no response. Travis’s three uncles might think he was weird, but he was only weird cuz of them. They were the only source of influence he had, having been raised in a little cottage in the woods far away from the rest of humanity.

Well, them and Agapanthus. But she was different.

Travis directed his attention back to the cup. How was he going to get Jeremy outside?

He felt the smile melt off his face as his plan crumbled right before him. The second he took the cup off the desk, the spider would certainly be gone in a flash. Or worse, would jump on him. And he didn’t want to risk trying to scoop it up, especially since Jeremy could easily just climb up the sides.

Travis’s gaze drifted to the paper he had knocked onto the floor. 

Paper! He could just slip a paper underneath and bring the cup over to the window, where he could toss Jeremy outside where he belongs! Travis took his hand off the cup, bending down and picking up a sheet. He straightened back up, carefully slipping the sheet under the cup. He expected to feel some sort of weight, or any resistance whatsoever to the paper being slid under. It felt like there was nothing under the cup at all. 

Travis squinted, very carefully tilting the wooden cup so that he could get a glimpse under it. Baffled, he lifted the cup a couple inches.

No Jeremy.

Travis felt his blood run cold as he spun around, his head whipping back and forth as he searched the room for any signs of the spider. It was as if it had never been there in the first place.

Travis didn’t like that, not one bit.

Suddenly, an outburst of muffled shouting broke out downstairs. It sounded like Travis’s uncles were arguing, as they so often did. He rolled his eyes, swinging around the corner and heading down the old wooden stairs. As the kitchen came into view, he could see that all three of them had their backs turned to him and were arguing over something on the table.

“I’m definitely not taking care of the cake, you guys know I can’t cook for beans.”

“Nobody’s doing anything until we figure out this fabric situation. Is the shiny stuff too much, or should we go more velvet-?”

“I think if we’re going to get anything done we need to get him out of the house.”

Of course they were talking about him. They always were.

Travis loudly hopped from the bottom step to the floor, making all three uncles jump violently. They spun around, clearly attempting to conceal whatever was on the table. 

“Nothing!” Garroth shouted.

“Traaaaavis!” Dante said loudly, shoving Laurence back towards the table and pushing something aside without looking back at it. “Just the man we were looking for! _Freakin- get that_! Can you do us a huge favor and go back out into the forest to gather some berries?”

Travis furrowed his eyebrows. “What? Why? I did that yesterday. They don’t grow back overnight.”

Dante shoved Travis towards the door, grabbing a basket off one of the hooks. 

“Ya missed some,” he said, thrusting the basket into his arms and throwing open the door. Garroth raced forward, grabbing Travis by the arm and pulling him outside. Dante slammed the door behind him.

“What’s so important about these berries?” Travis called through the closed door.

“Very important berries! Need more! Don’t come back for a while!” 

“Also, don’t flirt with the squirrels! You scare the neighbors.”

“That was one time, when I was thirteen!” Travis yelled back defensively. “And we don’t have neighbors!”

No response.

Figures.

Travis paused for a moment, then it all became clear. Today was his birthday, he had checked that morning. They didn’t often do much for his birthday, but they had been talking about his sixteenth birthday being an important one for as long as he could remember. He had also read plenty of books and had heard stories from them about spectacular birthday parties all over the rest of the world.

Maybe it was finally his turn for one of those.

Feeling a little better, he turned on his heel and wandered away from the cottage deeper into the woods. He probably wouldn’t find any more berries, but he could buy them some time to do whatever they needed to.


	3. chapter 3

~

Dante spun around, pressing his back against the closed door.

“Do you idiots want this party to be a surprise or not?” he demanded, rushing back over to the table and picking cookbooks and taylor designs off the floor. The three of them spread all the sheets of paper across the table, displaying a good number of cake recipes and pattern designs for a noble-looking tunic outfit. Spread out around the edges were several bags of fabric in various shades of green.

“Laurence, you usually make pretty decent eggs. Why don’t you start on the cake?” Dante slid the nearest cookbook across the table to Laurence, who shrugged and took it over to the counter.

Dante reached across and grabbed a bag of fabric, grabbing a few spools of thread along with it. 

“Garroth, come help me with this outfit thing. It can’t be that hard to make, it’s just person shaped, right? I need someone to be the model.”

Garroth followed Dante into the living room, where Dante put out a stool and directed Garroth to stand on it. As he stepped up, he frowned at the design Dante had chosen to create. “Why does he need a new outfit? He’s got plenty already.”

“He’s going to the  _ palace _ , Garroth,” Dante explained, pulling out some measuring tape. “He can’t just show up dressed like a peasant. He’s gotta look like the prince that he is. Besides, he’ll be meeting Princess Katelyn for the first time. He should make a good first impression.”

Laurence let out a scoff from the kitchen.

“Like he’ll need the fancy regalia to woo a lady,” he said. “That kid picks up flirting techniques like a sponge. He’s learned from the best.”

Dante rolled his eyes, but smiled. “Maybe he’d be less of a shameless flirt if you didn’t spend so long teaching him pick-up lines.”

“Yeah, well, maybe he wouldn’t be such a hopeless romantic if you spent less time talking about  _ Nicooooole. _ ”

Dante’s face flushed a color the exact shade of his red shirt as the other two burst into laughter. Garroth grinned down at Dante from the stool. “He’s right,” he said. “You basically slip into poetry mode any time she comes up in conversation. It’s no wonder Travis keeps trying to date anything that breathes. I’d be desperate for a relationship too if that was the only experience I had with it.”

“I hope she hasn’t forgotten me,” Dante muttered.

“Oh, you KNOW she hasn’t,” Laurence said, poking his head around the corner. “Remember when we went to go visit the witch’s guild a few years ago in the night while Travis was asleep? Nicole sprinted across the entire village when she saw you. If you don’t propose to her after all this, I guarantee she’ll propose to YOU.”

Dante smiled at nothing in particular, absent-mindedly cutting some fabric. He put it around Garroth’s waist, pinning it in the back.

“What are those holes in the bottom for?” Garroth asked, staring at the two foot-shaped holes in the sheet of fabric beneath him. Dante snapped back to reality, looking down.

“Well, pants have to have holes in the bottom, don’t they?” he said factually, turning back to the tunic he’d been sewing. 

Garroth frowned, pinching his own pants and looking at the bottom.

In the kitchen, Laurence had spread out all the ingredients and was reading the cookbook recipe through squinted eyes. “Three cups of flour,” he read, reaching over and grabbing the nearest thing that could qualify as a cup: an empty glass bottle. “This is probably close enough,” he mumbled, picking up the sack of flour and pouring some into the bottle. After dumping three bottle-fulls into the bowl and an addition of a bottle-full of milk, he went back to the cookbook.

“Fold in three eggs?” Laurence read, raising his eyebrows. “Cooking makes no dang  _ sense _ . And why is everything in threes?”

He grabbed the three eggs, dropping them whole into the bowl of flour. He grabbed a flap of the doughy substance and folded it over itself, crushing the eggs underneath.

He leaned in, sniffing it. He reeled back, wrinkling his nose. “This definitely could use some sweetness,” he said, looking around the room. His gaze landed on some apples, and he grabbed a couple. He twisted the stems off and dropped them into the dough. He stared at the bowl for a moment, thinking. He then grabbed a meat-pulverizer from a drawer and went to town whacking the apples to pieces. When he was finally satisfied with the crushed-ness of the apples, he went back to the recipe.

Back in the living room, Dante was pinning the last of the outfit in place around Garroth. It hung loosely from pretty much everywhere and barely resembled a tunic or an outfit at all. Several places where sleeves or patterns were supposed to be sewn together, thread was falling out or just non-existent altogether. Garroth, who was taller and considerably more muscular than Travis, looked over the outfit with a grimace.

“What do you think?” Dante said, standing back and holding the picture in the book in front of him.

Garroth looked Dante in the eye. “It’s trash.”

“Oh, that’s just because it’s on you. Laurence, how’s that cake coming along? Anywhere near done?”

Dante poked his head in the kitchen, where Laurence was holding a cake stand with one hand and holding up a very wobbly cake-ish shape made of dough with the other. Some blue goo that vaguely resembled icing was sloppily spread across any and every flat surface on it. Sixteen candles were sinking into the dough on the top.

“Well, kinda,” Laurence said, overlooking it. “It’ll be a lot stiffer when it’s baked.”

Dante’s smile slowly faded as he looked back and forth between the cake and Garroth in the living room. He was swimming in the fabric, desperately trying to get one or both of his hands out to push the ruffles around the neck out of his face.

Dante frowned at the floor. “This is a disaster.”

“Hey!” Laurence said, offended, now using his other hand to fish the candles out of the top layer.

“Not just that,” Dante said, waving his hand at the cake. “All of this. We can’t cook. We can’t make clothes. The whole house is a mess, and we don’t even have a plan of how to break the news to Travis that he’s a freaking  _ prince _ . No teenager’s gonna react well to finding out that they’re betrothed to some stranger.”

“I dunno,” Garroth said from the living room. “He might be kind of excited to find out he’s just gonna be delivered a hot rich wife without having to work for it.”

“Just think,” Laurence said, putting the cake down on the counter and propping it up with a broom. “This very night we’ll bring him back up to the same castle we took him away from when he was a baby. Sixteen years really do fly by, don’t they?”

“They do,” Dante said wistfully. “It really feels like yesterday that we were teaching him which things you can and can’t eat in the forest. And how to tie his boots. And not to grab deer by the tail.”

“And he used to be so small,” Garroth said, fishing an arm out of the top hole on the outfit to point at a very old drawing Travis had made that was tacked to the wall. “He sure started growing fast after eleven, didn’t he? He’s only sixteen and he’s already taller than Dante.”

“No he’s not!” Dante said quickly. “I’ve still got an inch or two on him!”

“Regardless,” Laurence jumped in. “I think it’s safe to say our days of having any sort of influence over Travis Valkrum are over.”

“Oh, I think they ended a long time ago,” Garroth said, finally getting his last limb out of the bundle of mismatched fabric. “We told him to go out in the woods and collect berries, but I can almost guarantee you that’s pretty much definitely not what he’s doing. He’s probably out swimming in that pond again, or trying to get that bird cult that he made up when he was nine back together. You know how he is.”

~

“Welcome,” Travis called out to the group before him, “to the first bi-monthly meeting of the Kingdom Forest Wizard and Witches’ Guild!”

There wasn’t much of a response from the collection of people made from tree branches and pine needles, though there was a bit of a commotion from the three squirrels that had gathered in the nearby magnolia tree. Usually when Travis did something like this, several animals that lived nearby in the woods would show up just to watch him at it. He must have been the most interesting thing in the forest on a regular basis.

Travis couldn’t blame them. He knew a thing or two about being bored.

“An outstanding turnout today,” he continued, pacing in front of his imaginary audience. A small flock of birds landed in a semi-circle before him, some of them pecking at the berries Travis had used to eyes on the stick people.

“Mind the wildlife,” Travis said conversationally. “This month’s topic is going to be fire magic. An uncommon but quite useful skill among wizards, for… reasons. I don’t know. What’s your question, Barkley?”

Travis paused, looking expectantly at one of the stick people closest to him. He was silent for a moment, listening carefully as if the stick person was speaking.

“Why yes, I certainly WOOD consider myself an expert in the field!” Travis sang, pointing finger guns at the stick person. He burst into hysterical laughter, pointing at several of the squirrels, birds, and stick figures as if they were laughing along with him.

“I would be happy to instruct a short course, if you’d all be willing to humor me,” Travis said, looking around at his audience. He winked at one of the stick figures that he had put a pine-needle skirt on. “No need to be so forward, Maple. I know I’m good at what I do, but I’m taken.”

Jumping back as if an outburst of shouting had broken out, Travis held his hands out defensively. “Ladies, ladies, lower your voices! I know it’s a tragedy, but I really am. I’m a faithful man, I intend to stay true to my woman. You’ll have to wait in line, I’m afraid. Now, can I get to the course lesson?”

He waited for a moment, looking around at his audience. A few of the birds had flown away, but a rabbit had hopped over curiously and was watching the show from behind a rock.

“Thank you,” he said formally, extending his arms. “First, you’re going to want to reach out your hands, like so. Focus on the energy both inside of you and the energy in the air around you. Try to transfer it all into your fingertips. Imagine it shooting out like a geyser. And soon, if you’re doing it right…”

A number purple sparks shot out of Travis’s fingertips like tiny stars, falling to the ground and fading away. He snapped his fingers a few times, and the sparks grew into small, palm-sized purple and red flames that danced across his sleeves. As he watched them travel across his skin, they faded all the way from shades of green to yellow to white back to purple and all over again. They reflected in his usually-green eyes, which were now emanating a soft purple light.

He closed his fists, and the fire gave one last pulse before extinguishing. He shook his arms back and forth, fanning away the smoke it had created. “Now,” he said, directed back at his audience. “Who can tell me how it’s possible that I can do that if I’m not a wizard?”

A silence stretched across the clearing in the woods.

“Nobody?” Travis asked hopelessly, looking around at his creations. The squirrels chattered a few times before darting away and out of sight.

Travis sighed, looking at a few dying sparks in the grass.

“Great,” he mumbled. “I guess nobody knows.”

He thought back again to the idea of simply going to ask his uncles about it. They seemed to have a plethora of books on the subject and an even bigger amount of knowledge on the subject. They always seemed a little uncomfortable with his interest in wizards, however, and always assured him that the family he had come from was non-magic.

They were also fairly adamant about the use of magic being a bad thing, for whatever reason. Travis could be a bit of a rebel sometimes, but making his role models upset was never in his interests.

Besides, he knew they had secrets they kept from him. He was perfectly allowed to keep secrets from them, too.

Suddenly, Travis’s head jerked up as a familiar sound met his ears. Somewhere in the distance, he could hear the rhythmic sound of horse hooves making their way across the forest floor. The distant clopping was just barely audible over the babble of the river he had set up next to, but the sound sent a wave of excitement over him.

Travis hopped over his audience of stick people, sending the remaining birds flying in all different directions. He sprinted flat-footed to the small bridge of rocks that stretched across the water further down the river, carefully hopping from stone to stone until he had crossed the river. He ran across the grass, grabbing a thin tree and using it as means for balance as he hung over the edge of a small cliff. He looked down into the thick canopy of trees below him.

Surely enough, he could see the familiar white horse galloping across a well-worn path, and the familiar head of sky-blue hair streaming in the wind. She would arrive at the river very shortly.

Grinning, Travis swung around the tree and raced back towards the stream, hopping back across the rocks and heading towards the magnolia tree that had been serving as a sort of backdrop for his meeting. He pushed aside the drooping leaves and branches, walking under the canopy of foliage. He hid in the tent of a tree, pulling himself onto one of the lower, stronger branches to wait.

Only a few moments passed before he could hear the approaching sound of hooves. He saw the blur of white leap across the small river not far away, then grow larger as it approached the magnolia. He could make out the distinct shape of the horse now, and it was slowing as it got closer. 

“Woah, Samson,” the girl’s voice rang out. The horse came to a stop, still shifting weight impatiently. Travis’s smile widened as he thought of what her face must look like wondering what all the stick people were.

“Uh… Clover?” her voice rang out again. “Are you here?”

Travis slid off the branch, careful not to make any noise as he walked up to the canopy of leaves.

“Clover…?”

“Excuse me miss, but do you have any raisins?”

The girl jumped violently, startled at suddenly hearing a voice so close. She looked around in confusion for a moment, before realization striking her. She sighed, looking annoyed.

“No, I do not have any raisins.”

Travis flung open the curtain of leaves, flashing her his best and most winning smile.

“How about a  _ date _ , then?”

She groaned, shaking her head and putting a hand over her mouth. Travis could still easily see the smile she was concealing.

“I swear, I don’t know why I still come out here,” she said, a hint of a giggle in her voice. “You’re the worst.”

“You know you’d miss me, Agapanthus,” Travis said, patting the old horse’s neck and shooting Agapanthus a wink. “We’re soulmates.”

“Are not. If we were soulmates, you’d know my real name,” she said, crossing her arms defiantly.

Travis shrugged offering up a hand to help her off the horse. “You did tell me when we first met you weren’t supposed to be talking to strangers out here. Neither am I. That’s why we gave each other nicknames. Ya know, safety and stuff. You’re so smart. I never would have thought of that.”

Agapanthus slid off the horse without taking Travis’s hand. He smiled at her, unfazed. 

“I remember, I was there,” she said, brushing some of her beautiful aquamarine hair out of her equally beautiful face. “You named me after that dumb flower.”

“And you named me after a leaf thing,” Travis said proudly, scratching the horse’s nose.

“And as for the whole safety thing, there’s a ton of things I’ve been taught to do to protect myself. Like how to punch someone’s lights out. Or break someone’s wrist, like I did to you that time you touched my butt.”

Travis laughed, thinking back. “I really wanted to know what it felt like.”

“Not yours to feel, buddy.”

“I know, I know. I can respect your boundaries.”

“What did you end up telling your uncles about that, by the way? That couldn’t have been an easy one to explain.”

“I told them I fell out of a tree. It happened pretty often when I was little.”

“That, I remember,” Agapanthus said, crossing her arms again with a smile. “Back when I’d sneak out here on Samson because I had just learned how to ride a horse. Nobody ever seemed very intent on teaching me how to climb trees, though. You certainly took care of that.”

“It was my pleasure,” Travis said, bowing gracefully. Agapanthus laughed.

“Graze around here, Samson,” she said to the horse, snapping and pointing at the surrounding grass. She nodded ahead, signifying to Travis that they were going to start walking, then began heading off.

“Don’t eat my stick friends!” Travis called back to Samson before jogging to catch up with Agapanthus.

He fell into step next to her, and the two of them began to stroll through the woods. They had taken to just walking and talking together the older they got. When they were younger, they would play pretend or tag or something of the sorts. For one reason or another, neither of them had really grown up with other kids around to play with. Understanding that Agapanthus wasn’t really supposed to be where she was, Travis was fine with letting her keep details about her life outside the forest to herself.

“Where were you last time I came out here?” she asked, putting her hands behind her back as they walked. “A couple days ago. I rode up here and looked everywhere. You’re usually around  _ somewhere _ .” 

“Friday?”

“Yeah.”

“Ah. Laundry day. We’re usually busy pretty much all day.”

“Hm. Has it always been Friday?”

“Nah, we just moved it for some reason. I would maybe pick other days to ride up here if I were you.”

Agapanthus frowned a little, watching the ground. “There may not be many other days,” she said. “Something kinda big in my life is about to change. Or, people are trying to make it change. If there’s anything I can do about it it won’t, but I usually can’t do much about this sort of thing. And this  _ specific  _ thing would… probably… be not good for my visits.”

“What do you mean?”

Travis could swear he could see a hint of a blush on her cheeks. 

“It’s complicated.”

Travis thought about this, the two of them still slowly making their way through the trees. He couldn’t imagine life without her. He didn’t want to think about how lonely he would have grown up without his friend from outside the forest. He was lonely enough even with her visiting occasionally.

“What about you? Anything of interest going on in your household?”

Travis lifted his head, a small flicker of excitement in his chest. He had been waiting for her to ask.

“Actually,” he said, doing a fancy little flourish with his arms, “It just so happens to be the birthday of yours truly.”

Agapanthus looked up, the blush fading and being replaced with a bright smile. “No way! Happy birthday! Any big plans?”

Travis bit his lip, trying to stop the laughter that was about to bubble out at the thought of his uncles scrambling to put together their idea of a birthday party. “Nothing spectacular. I think I heard Garroth say something about a cake. I’ve never had one before, so it should be an experience for all of us.”

Agapanthus giggled, brushing some dirt off one of her pant legs. When she was younger, she would wear more skirts. She had told him it was more common for women to wear dresses back where she came from, but it just made more sense for her outfits to have more pants because of how she generally chose to spend her time. Horseback riding, archery, knife-throwing, fencing, even wrestling, as she’d told Travis. She was extraordinarily strong and generally wasn’t allowed to go too far with her fights. She was known to break people’s bones with very little force.

She could easily snap his neck just by flicking her wrist.

Travis absolutely adored her.

He watched her as they walked in silence for a few moments. She seemed to be deep in thought, which was definitely a good look for her. Honestly, everything she did was a good look for her. Travis had often wondered if anyone else in the world had just happened to wander out into these woods, would he have felt the same way about them? He’d never really, truly experienced love before, and had no way of knowing if what he felt for the girl beside him qualified. He’d certainly take a hit for her. He  _ had  _ taken a hit for her. When they were fifteen, he almost got mauled by a bear in an attempt to get it away from her.

That one had also been rough to explain to the guys back home.

“I never understood why my uncles were so worried about me talking to strangers,” Travis admitted. “It’s like I’m not supposed to exist out here. You were really the only person who ever came out this far, and you ended up being amazing. All I’ve learned about the outside world has been from books and whatever people tell me. I feel like I’ll never really be a  _ whole  _ person, you know? All I am is this little section of the forest.”

“That’s not true,” Agapanthus said immediately, brushing her shoulder against his. “You’re more than a lot of people I know. And I know a lot of people.”

Travis felt his own face get warm, and his fingers closed around her hand almost against his will.

He felt her stiffen up beside him, but she didn’t immediately pull her hand out. So he didn’t let go.

“Why… why do you like me so much?” she whispered.

Travis opened his mouth, then closed it. Too many answers were running through his head. He was baffled that she would even ask. He figured it was fairly obvious.

“Well, for one thing you’re gorgeous,” he said, as if this were the most obvious fact. “But also, you were my best friend for as long as I can remember. I’m just some kid in the forest, but you always made time to come back out here and hang out with me. You’re so much stronger than the girls in the books I’ve read. You’re brave, and fast, and smart, and all the things I’m not-”

“Stop that,” she cut in. “You’re plenty smart. And VERY brave. You’re just… romantically challenged.”

“Heyyyyy.”

She laughed, a lock of hair falling back in her face. “I always came back because you’re different, too. People back home try to pressure me to act differently. I have expectations. I’ve learned so much from you, and all your little quirks. You always treat me like I’m good enough as is.”

“You’re  _ perfect  _ as is.”

For a moment, the two of them stood still, sharing soft smiles.

Travis saw a slight shift in Agapanthus’s expression when her eyes met his, and suddenly their intertwined hands felt unnaturally warm.

They yanked their hands apart, looking down at them. Travis almost missed a bright, magenta sort of glow fading where their hands had just been that faded just as quickly as he’d looked down.

“Wh- what was that?” Agapanthus stuttered, pointing from her hand to Travis’s face. “Your eyes turned purple.”

Travis felt his heart stop. He hadn’t done anything, not on purpose. But that definitely sounded like the same odd sort of magic he’d taught himself to use recently.

“Are you sure?” he said, thinking quickly. “The light that filters through these trees makes things look different sometimes. I figured that out when I picked a bunch of berries around here one time thinking they were one kind, but they turned out to be the kind that makes you sick. I was throwing up for a whole day.”

It wasn’t a total lie. That really did happen.

“What about our hands?” she demanded, holding hers up.

Travis shrugged. “Maybe that’s just how true love feels?”

She let out something between a scoff and a laugh. “I swear to Irene, if we get through all this and it turns out you’ve been a wizard playing tricks on me this whole time, I’ll have you beheaded.”

“Is that a thing you can do?”

Her eyes widened for a moment, but then it was her turn to shrug.

“I own an axe, don’t I?”

“Remind me to watch my step around you.”

The two of them laughed together for one last moment. It died out slowly, and Agapanthus stared at the ground. Her eyebrows furrowed.

“I can’t… we can’t do this.”

Travis tilted his head in an attempt to look at her face. “What?”

“It’s not… we can’t…” she sputtered, her apparent confusion morphing into anger out of seemingly nowhere. “It can’t be ‘true love’ or whatever. I’m not- I just- I can’t keep coming back here. I can’t see you anymore.”

Travis’s head was reeling from how quickly the mood of the conversation had changed out of nowhere. “Why not?”

Agapanthus ran her hands through her hair, the light blue locks getting tangled in her fingers. “We can’t keep doing this.  _ I  _ can’t keep doing this. It’s never going to work out.”

A bad feeling settled in Travis’s stomach, and he reached out his arm back toward her. She grabbed his wrist before he could touch her.

“I’m sorry. But this isn’t happening. I’m just-”

She let go, giving him one last pained look. 

“I’m sorry.”

Before Travis could think of anything to say or react at all, Agapanthus turned on her heel and took off back through the trees. Travis felt rooted to the spot as he watched her vanish into the shadows cast by the trees all around them. Soon, the air was filled with the sound of hooves galloping across the grass again.

Except this time they were going away, far away, and very, very out of Travis’s reach.

He felt like his muscles didn’t work any more. Clearly he had done something wrong. Something about him had finally sent his precious Agapanthus away for good. When he was younger he was sure she was too good to be true, and it was only a matter of time before she left and never came back. 

That day had finally arrived.

Feeling like his feet were made of lead, he began to make his way back in the direction of the cottage. He knew he had been gone for much longer than he’d meant to be, but suddenly the idea of a fun surprise birthday party didn’t appeal much anymore.

No matter how far away he walked from where it had all happened, he couldn’t quite shake the heavy feeling of rejection.

~

Dante, Garroth, and Laurence all sat on the floor between the living room and the kitchen. The floor on one half was covered in so much flour and sugar it looked like it had snowed, and something yellow was dripping down the side of the counter. Somehow some icing had gotten on the ceiling. The other half of the floor was a maze of pins and scissors and piles and piles of fabric. Just to add to the chaos of the scene, thread had  _ somehow  _ woven itself in spiderwebs all over the walls.

“I dunno, kinda looks like a party to me,” Garroth said.

“No. You know what?” Laurence said, pushing himself off the ground and brushing his hands off. “This is a  _ glorious  _ waste of time. I still think what I said in the first place. We’re playing ourselves if we don’t resort to magic. It’s what we know to do. I’m going to get our wands.”

Dante and Garroth watched as Laurence disappeared up the staircase.

“Should we stop-” Garroth began, but Dante waved his hand.

“No, he’s… he’s right,” he said, sighing. “We need this party to be a good one. Magic is what we know. It would make sense to use it just this once. Besides, we’re about to be done hiding, remember?”

“I guess so.”

Laurence came back down the stairs, a noticeable spring in his step. He held out the three wooden wands, a plethora of multicolored sparks showering out of the ends of them. “And here they are, gentlemen,” he said as the two of them scrambled to their feet.

“Careful with those!” Dante snapped, grabbing his wand with one hand and slamming the window closed with the other. “Lock the door and all the windows. Block up all the crevices. We can’t have ANY sign of magic coming out of this place.”

The three of them split up, rushing around to every wall to close windows and stuff rags or fabric lying around in every tiny crack. Soon, all the natural light on the bottom floor had been stifled and the only source of light was a lamp in the living room and one lone still-lit candle on the mess of a cake.

The three of them huddled in the middle.

“Laurence, you handle the cake. Garroth-”

“I’ll make the cool outfit!”

“No. I still wanna do that. You clean all this mess.”

Garroth scowled at Dante as he turned back to the outfit design the book was still open to. “ _ Yewww clean all this mess, _ ” Garroth said in a mocking, high pitched imitation of Dante. Looking back down at his wand, though, he grinned.

“Let’s see if I remember how to do this,” he said, pointing it at the small pile of cleaning supplies leaning against the stairs. They were illuminated with deep blue light, lifting themselves into the air.

“Soap, bucket, mop, broom,

Time for you to clean up this room.”

All the cleaning supplies shot forward, immediately getting to work and cleaning as if invisible people were working with them. The broom madly swept the corners, and soapy water poured itself on dirty spots while the mop scrubbed away.

“Why do your spells always rhyme?” Dante asked curiously, looking up from a bag of fabric.

“You’re not the only poetic one in this house,” Garroth said with a shrug, magically lifting and organizing all the fabric strewn across the floor and all over the furniture. “That, and I find it usually works better. Dunno why. Maybe my wand just likes rhymes.”

“Wands aren’t sentient. They’re just tools.”

“You don’t know that.”

Dante shook his head, deciding not to argue. In the kitchen, Laurence was going through the list of ingredients again, pointing his wand at each one so that it zoomed to join the line of ingredients on the table. When he got to the last one, he dropped the cookbook on the table with a loud THUNK.

“Just do what that says,” he said to the ingredients, pointing to the recipe with his wand so that it lit up the same shade of green as the glowing ingredients. They went to work just like the cleaning supplies had, the flour measuring itself out and the eggs cracking themselves.

“Oh,” Laurence whispered, watching the yolks drip into the batter. “Yeah. That really should have been obvious.”

In the living room, Dante picked three rolls of fabric and dropped them on the floor, shooting red sparks at each of them in turn. They rose into the air like snakes, intertwining and stitching themselves together and coming into the shape of a tunic, accompanied by long sleeves, pants, and boots. He waved his wand again and some of the fabric on the ground vibrated slightly, then shot into the air and attached to the shoulders as a cape. He had just begun to add some details to the front when he paused, looking at it.

“How do you two think this would look in red?” he asked, giving his wand a little wave. The green hue melted away and was replaced with a dark red that traveled up from the feet all the way to the collar. Garroth, who was chasing a rogue soapy rag, shrugged as he zoomed by.

Laurence poked his head in from the kitchen, using his wand to neatly ice the fresh cake. His eyes traveled up and down the outfit, and he shook his head. “It’s not very Travis,” he said.

“Oh, what, just cuz his eyes are green his clothes should be too?” Dante retorted, continuing on adding pale red threads to the tunic. 

“No,” Laurence said, neglecting the cake for just a second, causing some of the icing to drip onto the floor. “But the red does clash with his eyes. And besides, the red and green is kinda unseasonal. It’s springtime, not Christmas.”

“I like the red.”

“Well, I like the green.”

There was a short silence as they both turned back to their projects angrily. Laurence added a few frosting details, but then turned over his shoulder quickly and shot dark green sparks out of his wand toward the outfit. It flashed from red to green just as quickly as before.

“Laurence!” Dante groaned, waving his wand and turning it all back to red. 

Laurence peacefully added some more frosting, then shot the sparks right back.

Dante yelled some colorful language as all the fabric sprang back to green right in front of him. He spun around and shot a jet of red light at Laurence’s turned back, and as soon as it collided, the sparkles faded to reveal that Laurence’s clothes had turned the same shade of red as Dante’s.

“GARROTH! GET THE CAKE!” Laurence roared, spinning around and rushing at Dante with his wand already firing jets of green sparkles. Garroth ducked to avoid the red-and-green sparkles zooming around the room as he made his way towards the abandoned cake in the kitchen. Dante and Laurence fired back and forth, the room lit up and flashing like a Christmas tree. The outfit floating unattended in the center of the room wildly flashed back and forth between green and red just as frantically as the boy’s own outfits.

Jets of multicolored light and sparkles bounced all over the room chaotically as the two of them hurled insults and taunts at each other, some of them ricocheting off the bottom of the fireplace and shooting straight out the one forgotten vent in the household.

High above the cottage in the air, a raven circled the forest. He did a double-take when he saw the unmissable flashes of red and green light exploding from the small glen. Something about the harsh glow and the unnatural sparkle of it drew his attention, and he soared down closer to the source. 

He was slightly surprised to see the small cottage nestled in the forest- he didn’t remember there being one in the first place. And in such good condition. 

A shower of glowing green and red sparks erupted from the fireplace, missing him by less than an inch. He let out a few undignified cawing sounds, nearly losing his balance. He drifted down, looking through a tiny crack in the wall best he could with his huge bird beak.

There was a lot going on in that room, but the wizards Dante and Laurence were unmistakable as they participated in whatever squabble they had gotten themselves into. Which also meant the…  _ third _ one was nearby.

But more importantly, the prince.

Zane flapped his wings, taking back to the sky.

Back inside the cottage, Laurence had taken refuge behind a barrel full of dirty dishes as Dante unrelentingly fired a series of red balls of sparks. He rolled out from behind it for one moment to fire his own green sparks back, getting a red shoe in the process. 

At the exact same moment, the two of them shot beams of their color directly at the outfit from opposing sides. The room exploded into such an intense shower of sparkles there was no telling what color they were. When the light faded and the sparkles vanished, the outfit was an ugly mixture of uneven red, green, and brown in a way that nobody found attractive.

Dante and Laurence stepped out from behind their hiding spots, panting and pointing their wands back at themselves to return their clothes to their original colors. 

“Geez,” Laurence grumbled.

Garroth, who had finished the cake and was crouched next to a window that had been blasted open by the crossfire, suddenly hopped up, looking outside.

“He’s coming,” he said quickly, guestering to the window. “Travis is almost back, I see him coming out of the woods over there!”

Dante and Laurence looked around the room at the mess they’d created, having knocked over just about everything they had gone through the effort to put away. Dante rushed around, pointing his wand at it all and throwing it back on the shelves and in cabinets. Laurence pointed his wand at all the dirty dishes, and the grime was wiped away. Another wave and they all went sailing back into the cabinets.

Dante put out a chair, dropping the outfit onto it as the other two scrambled around behind him. He tapped his chin, then pointed his wand at it. The boots and some other bits remained brown, but the rest of it faded back to red. He darted back behind the staircase where Laurence and Garroth were already hiding and watching the door.

Laurence glanced back at the outfit, squinting. He pointed his wand at it and the red parts turned green.

Just as the door began to open, Garroth pointed his wand at the candles lining the layers of the cake. They all lit up with tiny flames as the door opened all the way and Travis walked in, his previous expression being replaced by confusion at the sudden lack of lighting.

The second the door closed behind him, all three young men tumbled out from behind the staircase. “SURPRIIIIISE!” They sang, and the lights rose. Travis looked at them all, startled, then noticed the outfit and the cake. His eyes widened as he took it all in.

“Happy birthday!” Garroth called, walking over to him. “Ta-daaaa! How does the cake look? Laurence made it but all the good stuff was me.”

“It’s-”

“What about this FIRE OUTFIT?” Dante cut in, waving his arms at the tunic piece. He looked back down at it. “Wait, what the-”

“Fire?” Travis said, sounding startled.

“Hey, calm down man, it’s just an expression,” Laurence said, giving the chair a smug pat. “I think it’ll look nice and regal on you.”

“That’s great, but-”

“Let’s dig in to this cake! What flavor is it, Laurence?”

“Um. I think it’s. Cake flavor?”

“Seriously?”

“I wasn’t aware there were options.”

“Hey,” Dante cut the two of them off, his eyes on Travis. “Something wrong? You look upset about something.”

Laurence and Garroth shut up, their eyes glued to Travis. He shrank back slightly at their intense stares.

“I’m… this is great, and thank you and all, but…” he began slowly, looking around at the cake and the outfit. “I’m… really not in a party mood. I think I’m just going to go upstairs.”

The three wizards looked at each other in bewilderment as Travis attempted to walk past them. Dante reached out and grabbed his arm.

“What in the world happened out in the woods? You were totally fine this morning.”

Travis stopped, one foot on the first step. He stared at the ground, his eyes darting back and forth as if he were sorting through his thoughts. 

Which meant that he was.

Which meant he had something to tell them.

Dante let go of his arm, taking a step closer. “What is it?” he asked carefully.

Travis slowly crossed his arms, still staring at the ground.

“You remember how… I’m not allowed to talk to strangers?”

Dante frowned at Laurence, who shared the same expression with Garroth. “What happened? Did something happen? Are you hurt? Did you-”

“Nothing dangerous happened,” Travis said, holding up a hand to stop them. “I just… a long time ago, like, a  _ long  _ time ago. This little girl found me out in the forest. We were about the same age at the time and we made friends. She would ride her horse out to meet me a couple times a week. I looked forward to playing with her every day, and was always so excited to see her coming.”

“Who was she? Did she stop coming?” Garroth asked.

“No,” Travis shook his head. “She only missed a few days when we were eleven because she was sick. She came right back as soon as she could. And I never got her real name. I… I started to like her as we got older. I really thought she liked me the same way. We got so close, and then… she just…”

Travis was clearly fighting back tears, his voice cracking. “I saw her again today. She said it was never going to happen. I-I’m sorry I never told you about her, I was afraid you wouldn’t let me see her anymore. She was my only connection to the world outside these stupid trees. And now she’s gone.”

In the slightly stunned silence that followed, the three wizards looked around at each other. They seemed to come to an agreement.

Dante leaned over, putting a hand on Travis’s shoulder. “What if I told you there was another connection? To the outside world?”

Travis looked up, confused. “What?”

“Well…” Laurence said, walking around Travis and sitting on the stairs. “It’s your sixteenth birthday. Which means it’s time for you to go back to your parents.”

“Huh?”

“That’s right,” Dante said, standing in front of Travis so that he could look him in the face. “You’re not just some peasant in the woods. Your parents are the king and queen. You’re the  _ prince _ . We’ve been hiding you in the woods all these years to protect you. I know it’s a lot to take in, but you don’t need that girl you were definitely not supposed to be interacting with at all and we can talk about that later. We’re bringing you back to the palace  _ tonight _ , just like we planned with your parents sixteen years ago. You’ll take your place as prince, and you’ll marry the Princess Katelyn from the neighboring kingdom. It’s going to be amazing.”

Travis stared at him blankly, clearly processing. 

“King and queen,” he breathed.

“Yes.”

“Prince.”

“Uh-huh”

“Castle.”

“Indeed.”

“Marry a princess?”

“Yup.”

Travis’s eyes continued to be completely blank for another full five seconds before he shook his head, pushing Dante and Laurence’s hands off his shoulders. “Nope,” he said, shoving past them. “Not doing that.”

Dante shot a baffled look at the other two before grabbing his arm again. “You can’t really-”

“You’re REALLY just going to dump all that on me right now?” Travis yelled, turning back to them from the second step up. “I go from nobody in the woods to a LITERAL PRINCE in three seconds flat and you expect me to just roll with it? I can’t do all the things a royal highness has to do! If you expect me to marry some stranger you’re dead wrong.”

“Travis, you two have been betrothed since birth. You’ll have to just-”

“My heart was just broken! For the first time! I feel like it’s in a million pieces on the floor, I am NOT about to turn around and get myself into another relationship! I can’t do romance right now! Especially with some snooty princess I didn’t even know existed until fifteen seconds ago! I just can’t!”

He turned and ran up the stairs, sending a few things rolling off the shelves as he did so.

“You don’t really have a choice, I’m sorry!” Dante called up after him. In response, all they heard was the slamming of a door.

“I’m sorry,” Dante repeated again quietly, a little unnecessarily. 

Garroth turned his attention back to the cake, the candles still twinkling innocently.

“That went about as well as we expected it to.”

“We really should have told him sooner.”

“We couldn’t, remember?” Dante said, tired. “The less he knew the safer he was. Imagine if he just spilled to that girl in the forest that he was the hidden prince the Demon Warlock was looking for. She could have been an imp, or she could have gone back and told her whole village. It’s better this way.”

“I certainly hope so,” Garroth said, looking up the stairs to where Travis had disappeared moments ago.


	4. chapter 4

~

Far away from the cottage, past the forest and the outer ring of the village, King Terrence stood at the enormous window that came with the spectacular dining hall in his palace. He frowned down at the rolling hills beneath him, his eyes scanning the forest that was visible in the distance.

Behind him, his fellow king and best friend rolled out of the kitchens carrying a tray on each arm, each tray ridden with small tarts of some kind.

“Your kitchen staff is so kind!” Eric called to Terrence as he set the two trays on one of the many food-covered tables. “They learned my strawberry puff recipe very quickly! And they all seemed so amused by the idea of a king who could cook. I admit it’s not a necessary skill, but it’s certainly much more fun than meetings and politics and such. You have to come over here and try some of these. Maybe not too many, though. I’ve already eaten at least seven.”

Eric looked up from the trays toward Terrence, who still had his back turned.

“You alright over there?”

Terrence jumped as if he hadn’t realized Eric had been there. He shook his head, looking back over the woods. “There’s been no sign of him all day,” he said, putting his hands behind his back. “Nothing at all. I’m just… I suppose I shouldn’t worry.”

“Darn right you shouldn’t,” Eric said, grabbing a strawberry puff and stuffing it in his mouth. “The sun is barely even setting yet. Party hasn’t even really begun. The boy will be here sooner or later. And speaking of the party…”

Eric motioned for one of the servants nearby, who was setting out various wine bottles. The servant hurried over with two goblets and a tall red bottle in hand. Terrence began to walk over as the servant began to pour.

“Sixteen years with no word whatsoever on how my only son is doing. No idea what his face looks like, if our scheme to hide him from the Warlock is working out…”

“That battle is long over,” Eric said, shaking his head and picking up a full goblet. “The wait is  _ done _ . You need to learn how to enjoy yourself.”

Terrence picked up the other goblet as the servant hurried away again. Eric raised his.

“A toast!” he said. “To the future!”

“To the future,” Terrence repeated, and they drank.

Eric wiped some wine off his mouth with his sleeve, letting out a short chuckle. “Finally,” he said. “The plan we made up when we were kids ourselves is happening. Our children are getting married and our kingdoms will finally unite! It really is about time.”

Eric drained the rest of his goblet while Terrence sipped his. Eric looked down at the few drops in the bottom, furrowing his eyebrows.

“Though, I must admit. Katelyn just feels so  _ young _ . It feels like days ago I was bringing her down to the stables to learn how to ride that old horse. And what with young Travis gone for so long, we’ve had a multitude of other suitors approach us claiming that they were better options. I’ve turned them all away. I just can’t see my sweet daughter going off with… well, anyone, really.”

Terrence finished off his goblet, eyeing Eric suspiciously. “Enki and I were married when we were seventeen. And you- you and Elizabeth were married at fifteen! Young certainly isn’t a factor here. You can’t back out of this now, even if it does result in… ah, well, how your marriage did.”

“Oh I’m not backing out, I just-” Eric froze, his eyes widening. He turned on Terrence. “What do you mean how MY marriage turned out?”

Terrence held his hands up defensively, grabbing the wine bottle off the table and topping off their goblets again. “I’m not insinuating anything! No offense intended at all! It’s only fair you didn’t know. You two were in love when you were fifteen, everyone knew it. It wasn’t your fault in the slightest that she decided to run off with the wrong person.”

Eric gulped down his wine, slamming the goblet down on the table with a loud TAK. “Now, I don’t know what she was doing up in the mountains with the Demon Warlock, but you WOULDN’T DARE insult her. And- AND- if I recall correctly, YOUR wife was with her too!”

Terrence nearly spit out the wine he was drinking. “MY wife isn’t the one who was caught making moves on servants and the guard! Enki is an adventure-seeking woman of character. It only makes sense she would follow her best friend on whatever journey she was partaking in.”

Eric’s face was turning a deep shade of red, partially because of the alcohol. “Don’t you dare insult Elizabeth!” he yelled, his words slurring slightly. “I may not have seen her in several years, but my Katelyn looks very much like her. It’s like I am reminded every day of all the good that came from knowing her. I wouldn’t have such a beautiful and strong daughter! And your son wouldn’t have anyone to marry!”

“My son could marry ANY WOMAN in this land!” Terrence shouted back, knocking over the bottle of wine and causing a fountain of red liquid to shoot out onto the long rug under their feet. “It doesn’t have to be your  _ highly unladylike  _ child!”

Eric gasped, snatching a breadstick off the table nearby and wielding it like a sword. “Fine then!” he bellowed, waving it around. “The marriage is off! But I’ll have you know this means WAR!”

Several servants around the room, who had been listening in with much interest, ducked for cover as Terrence grabbed one of the trays of strawberry puffs and flung it around in front of him like a shield. Pastries went flying all over the place, some landing in the empty wine goblets and some in the puddle of wine on the floor. The two men hurled curses at each other as Eric pushed forward with the breadstick, still wielding it like a sword against Terrence’s tray shield. 

With one last good stab, Eric thrusted the breadstick at the metal sheet. It bent in half, and the entire top snapped off entirely with a shower of crumbs. Eric froze, staring at the half-broken-breadstick in his outstretched hand. Terrence slowly rose his head from behind the tray, his eye on the broken breadstick.

Eric snickered, then let out a few chuckles. He soon doubled over from laughter, Terrence joining him. They dropped their weapons, laughing harder as they clattered (or in the breadstick’s case, bounced) on the floor. The servants all around the room looked around at each other in alarmed confusion.

The two men helped each other up, still catching their breath. Eric wiped a tear away, patting Terrence on the shoulder.

“What in the world are we fighting about?” he laughed, and Terrence shook his head. “Nothing at all, Eric. Nothing at all.”

Eric searched the room, grinning at all the baffled servants. “Where’d that wine go? We’ve got to toast to our grandchildren!”

“Grandch- oh yes, yes! Grandchildren!”

The two men continued to laugh as one of the servants scrambled to get another bottle of wine. Before he could pour anything, however, a muffled trumpet fanfare could be heard from somewhere outside.

Eric held up a finger, listening to it echo. It was met by the unmistakable sound of cheers from the villagers nearby.

“That’ll be Katelyn,” he said with a proud smile, turning and hurrying towards the exit. “She’s always out for one reason or another. She’ll have to learn how to stay put more often after all this. I’ll see you at the celebration! Can’t wait to finally meet Travis!”

Terrence waved as Eric disappeared around the corner, still frustratingly trying to remember what they had been arguing about so passionately only moments ago.

Eric flew down the stairs, hanging a right out into the open-air courtyard where a large crowd of high-end peasants were roaming around near the steps. A blank stretch was forming as the crowd parted down the middle as the crowd made way for the fast-approaching galloping horse. The princess Katelyn rode atop the horse, her long blue hair streaming in the wind. People called out to her as she streaked past.

“Good evening, your highness!”

“Are you ready for tonight?”

“Have you met the prince yet? Is he handsome?”

“Ditch the betrothal, princess! My family’s plenty rich! And I promise I’m a spectacular kisser!”

A spattering of laughter broke out at the last one, and Katelyn shot the shouter a dirty look. Her horse slowed down as she approached the steps of the palace, her father watching with a proud smile.

“Would you like him executed? We can have his head on the ground by the time the wedding starts.”

Katelyn hopped off the horse, eyeing her father. “ _ Murder  _ isn’t usually our style, dad,” she said as a few members of the staff rushed forward to start seeing to the horse.

Eric laughed. “I’m joking. I’m in particularly good spirits today, sugar pea. We only just finished the appetizer menu in the dining hall, I even helped out a little. We almost have the entire wedding ceremony and celebration ready to go! To be fair, however, we have been planning this since before you were born.”

Katelyn frowned at the ground, one hand still absent-mindedly rubbing the horse’s neck. Eric tilted his head, trying to read her expression.

“Aren’t you excited, dear? This is  _ your  _ wedding, after all.”

Katelyn played with the horse’s mane with one hand, sticking the other in her pocket. “It’s my wedding, sure. But I never picked the groom. I realize everyone’s made it abundantly clear that I don’t have a say in the matter, but… have you ever considered that there could be other people out there? Other guys I could marry? Who I actually like being around?”

Eric glared behind her at the guy who had called out before, who was watching from a distance.

“You don’t mean that guy, do you? Because I’d have to critique your taste in-”

“No, not that guy,” Katelyn said, rolling her eyes. “I really mean ANYONE else. I’ve never even so much as spoken to Prince Travis-”

“Exactly!” Eric jumped in quickly. “If you’ve never spoken to him how do you know you won’t like him? His parents are good people, he should be no different. And even if he isn’t all you want in a husband, you know you have a much greater purpose in all this than just marrying for love. By doing this you’re uniting two huge kingdoms. It’s a perfectly noble deed, you know that. You have to follow your instincts. Do what you know is the right choice.”

Katelyn’s eyes locked onto something invisible on the ground, squinting and then widening. Her eyes slowly rose to meet her father’s.

“...the right choice, huh?”

Eric nodded, still smiling.

“Hm.”

Katelyn stood in place as the palace staff began to lead her horse away, her arm swinging down to her side. She pursed her lips, then looked back up with a fierce look in her eyes.

“Alright then. Here’s my choice.”

She spun quickly, flinging a hand out and grabbing onto the back of Samson’s saddle. She pulled herself onto his back, causing several startled servants to yell in surprise. She pulled back the reins, making the horse rise up and kick his front legs in the air a few times before turning the opposite direction. She rode the horse up to her father, pausing only for a moment.

“I’ve met the boy I’m going to marry,” she said firmly. “I’ve known him for longer than I’ve known any other person even close to my age. He’s not a prince. He lives in the woods. And I choose him.”

There was a short, shocked silence as Eric processed her words. An unsure, wobbly smile crossed his face. 

“Are you… joking too? You’re joking.”

Katelyn shook her head, the fierceness still there. “Sorry, dad. But this is following my instincts. Now I need to go fix what I’m pretty sure I ruined.”

She pulled the reins, and the horse rose up and turned back towards the way she had originally came in. Eric yelled after her as she galloped away, back in the direction of the forest.

“KATELYN! COME BACK! LET’S TALK ABOUT THIS!”

She didn’t turn back, the horse disappearing back into the confused crowd. Eric attempted to push his way through, but the crowd was too dense. 

“KATELYN!  _ KATELYN! _ ”

She was gone, just as quickly as she’d appeared.

~

The sun was setting on the slums outside the kingdom, the evening sky casting long, dark shadows across the old small houses. The dark streets were littered with garbage and old, rotting wood. People darted about here and there, quick to get where they were going before it got too dark.

In one of the corners of this older, dark village, a number of makeshift tents had been set up and were scattered around, leaving a small path through the middle that was mostly taken up by the irrigation system. It filled the air with the soft sound of running water that mingled with a murmur of voices that was considerably louder here than anywhere else in the village. Cloaked figures roamed around, popping in and out of tents and jingling around pouches of coins.

One cloaked figure stood out from the rest, though it was almost impossible to tell unless one looked close enough. The cloak was a little less worn and ratty, and the wearer stood a little taller and with a little more poise than those around her. She looked around the rabble of people, her bright green eyes darting back and forth.

They fell on another figure, this one not bothering with a hood. Her soft blue hair curled around her shoulders in a regal sort of way that didn’t seem to fit with the scenery. She saw the hooded figure watching her, and smirked. She nodded her head towards a nearby alleyway, turning and walking slowly towards it. The hooded figure hurried to follow her.

They both made their way into the dark of the alley, the only sound being the echo of their footsteps and a steady dripping from somewhere. The cloaked figure lowered her hood, revealing a snow-white head of hair braided intricately. She watched the other woman with an expression somewhere between sternness and softness.

“Elizabeth,” she whispered. “You seem to be doing alright.”

“And Enki,” Elizabeth said, still smiling. “Not a day over 35.”

“I am 35.”

“Isn’t that what I said?”

Enki shook her head, chuckling softly. The two women embraced in the shadows. Enki pulled back, glancing down at her friend’s outfit.

“Not really bothering to cover up, are you?” she mumbled, eyeing the extremely low-cut bodice. Elizabeth shrugged. “Nobody to stay loyal to. Nobody to impress. Most people here don’t even know who I am. I’m generally known as Aquamarine around here.”

“So I’ve heard,” Enki said, glancing back at the small market area. “I had to really dig to track you down. You- or whoever was in charge of making you disappear- did a good job of covering your tracks.”

Elizabeth pursed her lips, looking down. “I suppose.”

A silence stretched between the two of them, a sort of discomfort filling the air. Drunken laughter could barely be heard from the tents outside the alleyway.

“Tonight’s the night, isn’t it?” Elizabeth finally said, crossing her arms. “It’s your son’s birthday. Everyone’s talking about the wedding. Nobody around here’s allowed anywhere near it, of course. Fitting. I won’t get to see my own daughter get married.”

“Elizabeth, you know there wasn’t anything I could do-”

“No?” Elizabeth shot, her head popping up. “You could have defended me. You could have given your side of the story, at the very least. I might not be here right now if you had at least said  _ something _ to your husband-”

“He wouldn’t have listened,” Enki said bitterly, putting a hand on Elizabeth’s shoulder. “You know him as well as I do. You have your reputation and I have mine. We were both fools to spend so much time with Mi- the Demon Warlock, we were so young. We thought we could help.”

“We certainly did,” Elizabeth said, still frowning. “But you were always his favorite. You two would spend so long together, I never had any idea what you were up to. I started to get an idea, however, when you were so sick that one morning. Do you remember?”

Enki nodded slowly, shifting weight. “I- I think so. I was supposed to meet you for breakfast but I could barely get out of bed. Why would that make you suspicious?”

Elizabeth didn’t say anything. She continued to stare at Enki, her blue eyes boring into Enki’s green ones.

“Very soon afterwards, if I recall, you discovered you were pregnant.”

Enki looked up in alarm, turning around in both directions as if looking for hidden people listening in. She turned back to Elizabeth, her voice quiet and hoarse. “What are you trying to imply, Lizzie?”

“You know exactly what I’m implying,  _ Kiki _ ,” Elizabeth said haughtily. “I may not have been the truest I could have to Eric, but I never had the relationship you did with the Warlock. And everyone who knew Terrence knew he was never going to have any children of his own.”

“Elizabeth-!”

“That boy you’re marrying off to my daughter?” Elizabeth hissed. “He may be your son, but he’s no child of Terrence’s. That’s why the Demon Warlock swore to kill him. The older he gets, the more power he’ll be taking from his real father. You and I both know a man can’t collect that much power without giving up something like having children. His son will be his downfall. How long before your husband finds out? And the whole kingdom? What will they do?”

“I don’t know,” Enki whispered, tears in her eyes. “I don’t  _ know _ , Lizzie! I want to protect my boy, and I don’t even know him! I never planned for this to happen! I don’t know where to go from here! The two of them can’t coexist on this earth, it’s impossible. I don’t know who else knows, but I’ve had to be silent all this time with no word on how he’s doing out in those woods. I just don’t know what to-to d-do…”

She dissolved into soft sobs, and Elizabeth took her hands and held them between the two of them. 

“Enki, you are a strong woman,” she said firmly. “You are the queen. You work incredibly well under pressure. You came all this way at your own risk to see me. You can certainly handle anything that comes next.”

Elizabeth lifted Enki’s chin so that they could make eye contact. Enki sniffed, wiping away the tears on her cheek. “He’ll come,” she said, her voice still very quiet. “As soon as Travis is back at the castle, he’ll come right back. No wizard can stop him from getting what he wants.”

“Everyone has limits, Kiki,” Elizabeth said softly. “Sixteen years of allowing a son to be alive can’t have helped Michael’s power levels any. Underneath all that power, he’s just as human as you and I. Before he was the Demon Warlock, he was Michael.”

Enki sniffed one last time, straightening up.

“I just don’t know what to expect from all this,” she said. “I have everything to lose. But I can’t stay around here.”

The two women looked back to the tents, where the last of the daylight was fading. Elizabeth sighed.

“You should make your way back to the palace and meet your son,” Elizabeth said finally. “He may even be back by now.”

Enki pulled her hood back over her head, turning back to Elizabeth with one final sad smile. She then began to make her way out the alley, stepping over puddles and scraps.

“And Enki?”

The white-haired woman paused, listening.

“Tell Katelyn I said hello.”

Enki nodded, exiting the alley. She wove her way back into the thinning crowd, blending in best she could and disappearing into the night.

~

On the other side of the palace, far away from the old, run-down village, four figures hurried through the night. Barely visible in the light of the approaching castle, it could be seen that three of the figures wore robes of red, green, and blue. No longer needing to hide their wands, they carried them at arm’s length, showers of sparkles providing a soft glow to light their way.

Travis trailed behind Dante, Laurence, and Garroth. He pulled a dark cloak around himself and shivered as he took in the huge courtyard framed by a number of tall towers that seemed to stretch out of sight. The group paused behind a small grove of trees, Dante standing ahead slightly and scanning the perimeter.

“They should be expecting us,” he whispered back to the group. “We have to be inconspicuous, though. We don’t want to draw too much attention to the fact that we’re bringing the prince into the castle.”

Dante looked back at them, his eyes catching on Travis’s hair. “Put up your hood,” he said. “Your white hair stands out a good deal in the dark.”

Half-heartedly, Travis pulled his hood over his hair. 

He glanced back up, noticing a small light that had appeared on the outskirts of the wall around the palace. He could barely see the outline of someone holding open a door with a soft light behind it, searching the forest that they had concealed themselves in.

“That’s our entrance,” Dante whispered, and motioned for them to follow him. The four of them jogged across an open space of grass, heading towards the palace servant that was waiting for them at the door.

Though Travis had never seen the inside of another building aside from pictures in books, he couldn’t bring himself to be horribly interested. It was hard to believe that it had only been that morning that things had felt so normal. Travis knew who he was and who he had been his whole life, he knew how things worked in his little world. He had known that he had one person he could always count on to hang out with, to trust with his secrets, to be himself around.

In only a few hours, it was all gone.

After following the three wizards through some sort of secret tunnels for a while, they climbed up a particularly steep winding staircase to what could only be one of the towers he had seen outside. Garroth pushed aside a tapestry, and the four of them came into a room with wooden floors and a few fancy looking couches. On the other side of the room was a set of large oaken doors, which the group approached.

Dante pulled out a small, black key that the servant had given them. He stuck it in the doorknob, unlocking the doors and pulling them open. He stepped aside and gestured for Travis to enter first.

Travis stepped into the room, the others following quietly behind him. He looked around. It was considerably small, but still bigger than the room he’d grown up using. There was a huge desk in the corner with a tarnished mirror, a couple wardrobes, a tall window with curtains pulled closed, a grand fireplace, and a regal looking bed with too many pillows to be necessary.

“You can wait in here until someone comes to tell us what to do next,” Dante explained, walking over to the desk. “And while we wait, come sit here real quick. I want to show you something.”

Travis shuffled over to the desk, sitting down in the chair and facing the mirror. Dante stood behind him as Laurence took something from a chest in the corner, turning and handing it to Dante. 

Dante lowered an ornate gold and green crown on Travis’s head, adjusting it so that it sat on top. It weighed like a stone.

“This is yours,” he said.

Travis stared at his reflection. Though he’d never worn anything like it in his life, the crown and royal outfit suited him. 

Something about it bothered him.

“I always wondered what you’d look like all dressed up,” Laurence said with a small smile, crossing his arms. “We’re used to seeing you in peasant clothes, or all covered in mud or something. The only palace-made outfit you owned was the one you wore as a baby when we brought you into the woods all those years ago.”

“So…” Garroth said slowly, watching Travis’s face. “How do you feel?”

Travis continued staring blankly at himself. Suddenly, the crown didn’t feel like the only thing weighing on him. The whirlwind of change and rejection and everything else in Travis’s life seemed to hit him in the face all at once. The person he was looking at in the mirror couldn’t be him, and yet, it very much was.

It was just too much.

Against his will, his vision went blurry as his eyes filled with tears. He couldn’t stop a few sniffles as they dripped down his cheeks. He could see the worried and upset faces of his friends standing around him in the mirror, unsure of how to react to this.

Before Travis could stop it, he was crying into his hands. He put his head down on the desk, muffling them.

“We should probably give him a minute,” he heard Dante whisper. “Let’s go outside.”

He heard the sound of three sets of footsteps shuffle across the wooden floor and the doors creaking open. They closed behind them with a dull thunk, leaving Travis alone in the room.

In the few moments of silence that followed, Travis attempted to shift through his thoughts. He had never felt so overwhelmed in his life, and he’d certainly never had much of a reason to cry hard about anything before. He had mostly outgrown that kind of thing.

And yet here he was.

He sniffed a few times, attempting to pull himself together. He was starting to feel like a little kid again, bursting into tears when he was feeling too many things. He was reminded of the time he was twelve and had tested his first pick-up line on Agapanthus. She had not reacted at all how he was hoping she would, and certainly not how Laurence had described a lady was supposed to react. She’d laughed when he started crying, but felt bad and apologized later.

That was the first time he realized he really had feelings for her.

Travis lifted his head slightly, looking down at the wet stains he had created on the sleeves of his nice outfit. Earlier, in the dark, he could have sworn the green looked red. When he had gotten back into the light, however, it had gone back to green.

Just another weird thing to add to the list of things that had happened that day.

That, along with his uncles not being his uncles and instead being three famous wizards. That had possibly been one of the bigger shocks of the whole situation.

Travis jumped when he thought he heard one of them walking up behind him again, though he didn’t hear the door open. He spun around.

But nobody was there.

Travis stared at the spot he could have sworn it sounded like someone had walked to seconds ago, his vision still a little blurry through puffy eyes. It was very strange. It really felt like someone else was in the room.

He heard another soft rustling, and his head jerked in that direction. The curtains were moving every-so-slightly, blowing gently as if there was a wind.

Even though they were indoors.

Travis’s misery was slowly replaced by a growing sense of dread in his stomach. He carefully searched the room from where he sat, his confusion only growing as the strange movement seemed to surround him, causing a creaking in the wood and a rustling of fabric. He felt his hair stand on end when he heard a soft whisper from nowhere in particular.

“ _ Travis… _ ”

His head whipped in every direction, his arms shooting out to cling to the chair he sat in. “L-Laurence?” he said, desperately wondering why any of them would be pulling some kind of joke on him right now of all times.

His eyes finally fell on a strange sort of glimmer coming from the small stack of logs in the fireplace. It was as if someone had attempted to light the fire, but it had only caught a tiny bit and was struggling to stay alive underneath all the wood.

As Travis watched it, it seemed to seep its way through the logs until it was sitting on top of them. With a small pulse, it floated into the air until it was hovering a few feet above the wood. It spun and grew, glowing brighter and casting an eerie green glow over the room. All the other light seemed to fade away, the only thing providing any sort of glow being the floating ball of light in the fireplace.

Even the room around it seemed to be fading, Travis realized, as he stared at it. Something about the little glowing sphere demanded all his attention. It made the world around him spin, while somehow making his body heavy at the same time. He couldn’t look anywhere else.

He suddenly had a very strong feeling that the light was calling to him, commanding him to follow it where it needed to go. He realized that he was standing despite having no memory of doing so. He felt his legs moving underneath him, bringing him towards the small, warm light. He wasn’t making them move. But he had no intention to stop them.

Where was he again? How did he get there?

Did it matter?

Travis had no reaction when the wall behind the fireplace melted away, revealing a hidden tunnel with a staircase that surely hadn’t been there before. He didn’t even notice that his nice cape was dragging across the firewood on the floor, knocking some of it over. His only thoughts were to follow this little glowing light.

Outside the room, the three wizards sat on one of the couches on another hardwood floor. Garroth crossed his arms, sinking low into the cushions as the other two sat nervously.

“Am I the only one who thinks this is a little dumb?” he wondered aloud, frowning at the wall. “Poor kid’s never even seen outside the woods before and he’s just being flung into all this against his will.”

“He’s leaving a life in the woods and entering a life of luxury. Who’s to say he won’t love it?”

“But he’s not even getting any time to adjust to it!” Garroth said, sitting up. “You both saw how upset he was. Forcing him into a marriage right now is probably the worst thing we could do to him.”

“We don’t really get to make that decision, Garroth,” Dante said with a sigh, leaning back. “We’re not his dads.”

“Sometimes I wish we were,” he muttered.

Laurence stood up from the couch, walking over to the doors and putting his ear up to them, listening. 

“I don’t hear any crying,” he said slowly, his brows furrowing. He squinted, pushing his face closer to the wood. “Actually, I don’t hear anything at all.”

“Aw crap, you don’t think he climbed out the window, do you?”

“No, no, I feel… something,” Laurence said, his frown deepening. “It kinda feels like Travis. But also… not.”

Dante sat up suddenly, also frowning. He glanced around, tense.

“I feel that, too. It’s almost like…”

Garroth sat up, and the three of them looked at each other in steadily growing alarm.

“Oh no. Oh, we are such IDIOTS,” Dante said loudly, leaping up from the couch and sprinting across the room to the door. He flung it open just in time for the three of them to see Travis slowly disappear through the fireplace, a dim green glow ahead of him and a solid wall of brick appearing behind him.

“NO!” Dante gasped, racing forward and slamming a fist on the brick wall. 

“Travis!” Garroth yelled, hitting the wall a few times.

“Oh come on, just-!” Laurence said, going through his robes for a second before yanking out his wand and pointing it at the wall. It disappeared in a small explosion of green sparks, and the three of them raced through. Before them were three separate staircases, each one with an eerie green light coming from the top. 

“TRAVIS!” Dante called, pulling out his wand as Garroth did the same. When there was no response, he shook his head and began running up the center staircase. The three wizards held their wands aloft, casting vague glows across the steps as they sprinted up and down them, looking out each window and down every tunnel calling Travis’s name.

Somewhere else in the tunnels and endless staircases, Travis was following the ball of light into a small stone room. The light flew ahead, attaching to the staff a man in the room was holding. The man had two black horns and a wide grin, his gleaming purple eyes locked on Travis as he slowly entered the room.

Dante, Laurence, and Garroth continued racing around below them, desperately yelling Travis’s name with no luck.

“TRAVIS!”  
“If you can hear us, Travis, don’t touch anything!”

“DON’T TOUCH ANYTHING!”

Oblivious to his friend’s cries, Travis continued making his way across the room. A light flashed in the corner by the window, and a spinning wheel black as night appeared out of the darkness.

As if obeying an unspoken command, Travis reached towards it.

“DON’T… TOUCH… ANYTHING!”

Travis faltered, blinking a few times as if trying to wake up.

He withdrew his hand slightly.

“Touch the spindle,” the Demon Warlock’s voice echoed across the stone walls. “DO AS I SAY.”

Travis’s hand drifted back out towards the spindle, his expression blank. His finger had only just lightly brushed the spindle when an explosion of green light whirled around the room.

The flash could be seen from where Garroth was running, and he yelled out for the other two to head towards it. The three of them hurried breathlessly up the stone stairs, almost tripping over each other along the way.

“Travis!”

“TRAVIS! DON’T-”

The warning died in Dante’s mouth as they burst into the room, stopping immediately as if hitting an invisible wall.

The Demon Warlock stood before them in the center of the room, a triumphant grin across his face. His cloak covered a shapeless lump on the floor. His very presence seemed to fill the room with an unsettling purple glow.

“You’re too late,” he sneered. “You thought you could hide  _ my own son  _ away from me? You’re mistaken, as you so often are. Now, here’s your PRECIOUS PRINCE.”

Before the wizards could fully process what he’d just said, the Demon Warlock yanked his cloak aside to reveal Travis, lying motionless on the floor with his hair covering his face and his crown a few feet away as if it had rolled off his head and across the floor.

The three of them yelled out as lightning seemed to crash all around the room, the Demon Warlock rising into the air with a vicious bark of laughter. The unnatural storm raged for one moment as there was an enormous flash, and then it vanished along with its master.

Dante rushed forward, Garroth and Laurence close behind him. They all crouched down by Travis, watching worriedly as Dante felt for a pulse.

He let out something between a relieved and a pained sigh.

“It appears your spell from all those years ago came in handy, Garroth,” he said, still with a hint of sadness. “He’s asleep.”

“But what do we do now?”

The three men sat in silence, looking down at the unconscious form of Prince Travis in between them.

“I don’t know,” Dante whispered.

Though they had done so much in the past to prevent the day from coming, it seemed nobody had truly been prepared for when it did.


	5. chapter 5

~

In the Grand Hall of the castle, completely oblivious to what had just happened in one of the towers, a celebration was commencing.

The energy in the room was very similar to the way that it was on that same day sixteen years ago, with large crowds all in festive colors roaming around the palace speaking in loud, jubilant voices. The courtyard was filled with people all excited and ready to meet their prince.

If anyone had really bothered to look, however, they would see that neither of the people the party was being thrown for in the first place were even at the castle at all.

King Eric made his way through the crowds, his lips pursed as he looked across the sea of heads to where the king and queen sat, blissfully unaware of the rash decision his daughter had just made. Somehow, during all the excitement and preparation of the evening, Eric had failed to ever pull Terrence aside to explain the situation.

This could only go horribly.

Terrence, patches of pink on his cheeks from the wine, caught sight of Eric and grinned, waving him over. People moved out of the way as Eric walked up the steps towards the two thrones, plastering what he hoped resembled a joyful smile on his face.

“Eric! Enjoying the festivities? I’d say we did a pretty good job. Travis is surely going to feel welcomed and impressed when he sees it all, don’t you think?”

Eric nodded nervously, edging his way between Terrence’s throne and the small wall it was pushed against. Enki only had a moment to watch him in confusion before someone grabbed her attention, engaging her in conversation.

“Is Katelyn all ready? Excited to meet her husband?”

Eric wrung his hands, a bad habit he had been working to get rid of for quite some time. It always gave away that he was nervous about something. Terrence luckily seemed to have already had quite a bit of wine and didn’t notice in the slightest.

“Yes, ah…” Eric began, desperately trying to think of a way to explain. “Katelyn. You- you know she can be a bit hot-headed sometimes. And very strong willed.”

“Yes. Quite a spit-fire, that one.”

“Well. Just earlier today, when she came back from the forest, she seemed to have, uh… well, she… she did- or, ah, met-”

Terrence held out a hand, stopping Eric mid-sentence. Trumpet fanfare could be heard from outside, and it was soon echoed by the trumpets in the Grand Hall. A herald’s voice echoed across the mass of people.

“The sun has set! The celebration is commencing! Prepare yourselves to finally meet your prince!”

Applause and cheering broke out, reverberating all over the palace. Terrence smiled broadly at his wife, who smiled back at him almost uncertainly. She looked away a little too quickly, but Terrence didn’t notice. A bad feeling was growing in her chest, but the cause wasn’t quite clear to her.

~

Dante stood at the tall window on one of the towers, looking down at the large sea of cheering people. He’d just heard the announcement of Prince Travis.

He wasn’t sure who had told them to go ahead with that. The only person who had any knowledge that Travis was even in the palace at all was the servant who had let them in. It suddenly hit Dante how absurd it seemed that there had been almost no communication whatsoever between them and the palace, and the only thing anyone was going off of was a basic plan created over a decade ago. Everyone, even down to the herald outside the castle, had complete faith that everything would go exactly as they’d arranged it to, even when nobody had even stopped to check and make sure the prince they’d been waiting for was even present.

He wondered how they’d react when they found out what had become of him.

Dante turned back around, grabbing the curtains and pulling them closed behind him as he walked into the room. Travis had been lain down in the bed in the room he’d been in earlier, the covers pulled up to his torso. His eyes were closed, his expression empty. The way his arms were folded across his stomach combined with the white rose that had somehow ended up in his hands reminded Dante very much of a person in a coffin.

Not wanting to look at it, Dante looked over at Laurence and Garroth, who were sitting on a small velvet bench by the bed.

Garroth had his knees pulled up to his chest, watching Travis blankly. Laurence was slumped against the wall with his head resting against it, looking tired. He glanced Dante’s way as he approached, then sighed with his eyes closed.

“The king and queen trusted us,” he said. “They trusted us to raise their son and protect him. What are they going to do when they find out?”

Dante’s eyes wandered back to the sleeping form of Travis. 

An idea crossed his mind, and he almost dismissed it immediately. He paused for a moment, however, mulling it over.

It was insane. But it may have been their only option.

“They’re not going to find out,” he said quietly. Garroth and Laurence’s heads rose, their expressions inquisitive. Dante looked towards the closed curtains, where they could just make out the vague bright flashes of color that could only mean fireworks.

“We’re going to put them all to sleep.”

Laurence’s wand dropped to the floor with a clatter, and he bent down to pick it up as Garroth voiced what they were both thinking.

“We-  _ what _ ?”

“It’s the only way. It’s best we keep the palace unaware until we find a way to fix this.”

“The whole PALACE?”

Laurence jumped up, wand in hand. “You’re not going back on what you told me before all this, are you? Remember? About what we use our magic for setting us apart from the Demon Warlock?”

“Oh for crying out loud Laurence, we’re not hurting them,” Dante said, heading back to the window. “And it’ll only be temporary for them. It’s just until we find a way to wake Travis up. If we’re gonna do this, we have to hurry. Let’s move.”

As he pushed aside the curtains to walk out onto the balcony, Garroth and Laurence looked at each other without saying anything for a moment.

“He may be right,” Garroth said, looking grim.

Laurence looked out the curtains, which Dante was holding open slightly to watch the fireworks display. The greens, golds, reds, and blues flashed and sparkled across the sky. The thought of all that celebration turning to fear or even anger directed at them made up his mind.

He nodded decidedly, the colors reflecting in his eyes.

The two of them followed Dante onto the balcony, and he carefully closed the curtains behind them. “Just follow my lead,” he said, raising his wand over himself. A shower of sparks surrounded him and he rose into the air, shrinking down to a much smaller size and sprouting small, familiar bird wings. Garroth and Laurence followed suit, flapping into the air beside him. They rose their wands, glancing around at each other with determination. Then they soared over the balcony, splitting up and zooming in three different directions with their wands raised. A trail of shimmering wind followed each of them as they went.

Garroth split off to the left, gliding towards the streets filled with people just outside the walls of the castle. He flew above them, his wand trailing out behind him as he went. Clouds of the spell fell over the crowds, and an odd hush seemed to sweep across it. Everywhere the magic touched, lights would flicker and die away. Trees stopped swaying in the wind, their branches drooping low. All over the streets, people were drifting off, leaning into and against whatever was near them. Usually it was other people. Before anyone really had any time to react to the spell, they were already unconscious.

Laurence took the courtyard and the whole outer ring of the castle. The same eerie silence fell over it all as the spell sank lower over the crowd. The wind itself seemed to stop whistling as heads sank all over the courtyard. Showers of sparkles drifted on top of the fountain in the center, and the water sputtered to a stop. Guards positioned all along the walls and entrances to the castle leaned against the stone, their weapons and flags falling to the ground with a metallic clatter. The hazy effects of the spell hung over it all, casting a strange and mysterious cerulean glow across the sleeping figures.

Laurence watched, flinching, as a woman near a flower patch sunk to her knees with a baby in her arms. He flung his wand in their direction, causing one of the sunflowers to grow exponentially in size very quickly. It caught the baby softly as it dropped out of the woman’s arms, holding it there like a nature-made cradle. Laurence let out a short breath of relief, reminding himself to remember he had done that later.

Inside the castle, Dante floated and flapped silently all around the stone walls, casting the spell all over the party-goers. The festive colors in the room seemed to dim as the haze fell over them, the people drifting off one by one. Dante looped around, flying back towards the Grand Hall entrance. The spell had already begun to make its way in, the conversation slowing and becoming more muffled. Goblets dropped to the ground here and there as Dante passed over groups of people, causing puddles of various colored liquids to stretch across the floor. Dante pointed his wand at several, attempting to clean up as many as he could.

By the time he’d reached the thrones at the back of the Hall, the effects of the magic were already starting to set in. Queen Enki leaned her head forward, blinking hard a few times. Kings Terrence and Eric were still attempting to carry on a patchy conversation.

“Hm… what were you saying… Er… Eric… about Katelyn?” Terrence managed between yawns. Eric shook his head a few times, leaning haphazardly against Terrence’s throne. He squinted, clearly trying to remember.

He blinked, nodding. “Right, yeah. Uh… Katelyn. She… sort of… uhhhhhh…” He yawned, closing his eyes. “Sort of ran off. Not here.”

Dante hovered closer curiously, his wand still outputting the hazy, shimmery clouds.

“Huh?”

“I… sort of lectured ‘er about the wrong thing, I think… said something about marrying some… peasant boy. In the woods.”

“Nnnnnthat’s nice.”

“Mm.”

As the two kings leaned their heads against each other’s, Dante suddenly felt as if he’d gotten an enormous electric shock.  14th century electricity ya know

“Peasant boy?” he repeated loudly, his mind racing. “IN THE WOODS?”

Suddenly everything Travis had told them came flooding back, filling his head and weighing down on him. The girl about his age. Riding a horse. Particularly attractive. Claimed their relationship would never work out.

Because she was  _ betrothed. _

TO HIM.

Heart thundering, Dante zoomed down to float in front of King Eric. His panic grew as he frantically searched Eric’s face for signs of consciousness. “Did she say anything else?” he demanded, flicking up one of his eyelids. “Did she know who he was? She said she was going to run off to marry him instead?”

Eric let out something like a snore and a few muttered words.

“SPEAK TO ME, DANGIT!” Dante yelled, thwacking Eric’s head with his wand. The king stirred slightly, still mostly asleep.

“Mm… rode right off…”

Dante shook his head, all the pieces clicking together in his head. Of course. Of course the free-spirited princess rode off into the woods often. Of course Travis would have fallen in love with her instantly, and apparently the same could be said vice versa. Dante couldn’t blame her. That gift of charm seemed to be doing its job. They would have grown up together, never suspecting that their close friend from another world was, in reality, the very same person they’d been promised when they were much too young to remember.

Fate certainly does what it does in mysterious ways.

Dante zoomed into the air, flying at top speed out of the Grand Hall and almost running into Laurence full-force. The two of them tumbled around for a moment before regaining balance, flying up to each other.

“Where’s Garroth?” Dante said quickly, his head whipping around as if he were hiding somewhere. Laurence, recognizing Dante’s urgent tone, raised his eyebrows. “Casting the spell on the village, like we planned?”

“There’s been a development,” Dante explained breathlessly, guestering for Laurence to follow him. He took off out the front entrance, Laurence trying to keep up close behind him.

“What development? Is something wrong?”

“Could be! GARROTH!”

Garroth paused, his wand still trailing around fog. He watched his two approaching friends in confusion.

“Listen you two,” Dante said, still breathless from both flying around so quickly and the exhaustion caused by casting such a large blanket of magic. “I just caught the tail-end of a conversation between the kings. You remember that girl Travis met in the woods? That he was so upset about because she said she couldn’t be involved with him?”

The two of them nodded, confusion and mild worry written all over their faces.

“It was  _ Katelyn _ ,” Dante gasped. “THE Katelyn! Princess Katelyn! Neither of them knew who the other one was because they never told each other! Neither was supposed to talk to strangers!  _ DO YOU HEAR WHAT I’M SAYING?  _ PRINCESS KATELYN IS THE GIRL TRAVIS FELL IN LOVE WITH!”

Garroth’s mouth fell open and Laurence’s eyebrows shot so far up they seemed to disappear. “Where is she now?”

“I don’t know!” Dante wailed. “Her father said she rode off on her horse back into the woods this afternoon to find Travis because she was picking him over whatever prince she was betrothed to!”

“Holy  _ mother _ ,” Garroth breathed.

“No kidding,” Laurence muttered.

The three of them hovered in the air in silence, processing it all as their bird wings flapped on their backs in the dull quiet the spell had created. 

“So…” Laurence said slowly. “She’s our one chance at saving Travis along with possibly the rest of the kingdom.”

“Which means-!”

“We need to find her before the Demon Warlock does,” Garroth deduced quickly, looking at the other two worriedly. 

Without wasting another second, the three wizards turned and shot towards the forest, glowing in the deep darkness like multi colored beacons in the night.


	6. chapter 6

~

Samson thundered through the woods, Katelyn on his back. She had been searching for quite some time now- she normally had no problem finding wherever Clover had elected to hang out that day, but finding his house was another story. All she knew about it was that it was a small cottage in a glen deep enough into the woods it was nearly impossible to find. Katelyn was sure Clover was the only human alive who could find it easily, seeing as he spent several years of his life teaching himself to navigate these woods. Well, him and his crazy uncles he talked so much about.

Katelyn wondered vaguely how they’d react to meeting her. Did they spend more time outside the forest than Clover did? He did make it sound like they knew more about all that than he did. Would they recognize her? It certainly had to be something of a shock for the princess herself to turn up unannounced to your house, asking for your nephew’s hand in marriage.

It was a little forward. But Katelyn was nothing if not forward.

The sun had set a while back, and Katelyn was not used to being out in the woods in the dark. The trees cast long, pitch black shadows across the ground she used to know so well. Strange noises echoed across the branches as she passed underneath them. She worked hard to convince herself it was nothing she couldn’t handle. Just the same birds and chipmunks and squirrels that bothered her during the daytime.

She allowed her mind to wander slightly as she watched the world around her carefully. She had grown up quite accustomed to the concept of marriage. She was always told that when Prince Travis, who had gone into hiding as a baby because of one of the Demon Warlock’s threats, reached sixteen, they’d have to get married. For years she ignored this fact because sixteen was always so far away. It all became very real one day, however, when Katelyn and her father were invited to a wedding very far away. The journey alone had taken almost half a week. The party surrounding the wedding had been spectacular, and everyone had been in obnoxiously good spirits.

Everyone except the bride.

Katelyn remembered so clearly the tears visible on her cheeks as she was led into the room for the ceremony. They way she sniffled through the whole thing, and her voice shook when she took her vow. Her groom went through a whole list of vows, seeming either completely oblivious or completely unbothered by her misery.

When Katelyn had asked her father later why the girl was so upset, he admitted the man she was marrying wasn’t exactly the kindest soul. He said that perfect matches don’t always happen with betrothals. They were arranged for the benefit of a family or a kingdom, not so a couple lovebirds could legally live together and have children.

Katelyn, revolted, had jokingly said she would rather marry some nobody who lived in the forest if it meant he’d treat her right.

Her father had laughed and said she couldn’t do that.

Katelyn had almost completely forgotten about that day, and both she and Clover had grown so much since then. She had thought more than once that if she had been that unlucky bride, and if the man on the other end of the aisle was Clover, she certainly wouldn’t be crying.

She should have never been so harsh with him. She knew now he meant far more to her than she realized.

Her eyes locked onto a rectangular shape above the trees. It almost looked like it was made out of brick. Bricks don’t grow in the wild, and definitely not in perfect rectangular shapes.

She rode towards it, dodging around a tree and galloping out into a small clearing. And there it was- a small, mostly wooden cottage with a water wheel attached to the side. It was revolving slightly, the stream underneath it pushing it along. It was very humble. Very Clover.

Katelyn slid off the horse, proud of herself for tracking it down. It did seem a little odd that there seemed to be no light coming from it at all, however. All the windows were closed, nothing but darkness behind the small circular hole in the door. 

Cautiously, Katelyn approached it and knocked softly a few times. To her surprise, she heard a muffled response from inside.

“Come in.”

She didn’t recognize the voice, but she didn’t expect to. She’d never met Travis’s uncles. What was odd about it though was that they were so willing to just let her walk in on her own. Nobody even came to the door to see who it was. They couldn’t possibly get that many visitors.

On edge, Katelyn slowly pushed open the door. Just like she had seen from the outside, there was absolutely no source of light. Surely they didn’t live like this. Surely there was a lamp, or a candle, or-

She had only taken one step into the room when she saw them. Two glowing purple eyes staring directly at her.

Then- of  _ course _ \- the door slammed shut behind her. She screamed out curses as she felt something- lots of things- grab and wrap around her arms like vines. Several small flames erupted into existence all around her, revealing a crowded room full of short, brown and black creatures. She only barely had time to recognize them as imps during the chaos- dozens of them were piling on her, trying to tie her hands together and her legs to the floor. She was able to shake most of them off, balling her hands into fists and catching several across the face with one punch. The strength she had grown up with was coming in handy, snapping whatever rope they brought near her and sending every imp flying back.

In the confusion and crowd of things attacking her, she almost didn’t notice the cloaked man in the back pull a staff out of nowhere. There was a flash, and she was frozen in place. Heavy chains were around her wrists and ankles, securing her firmly to the floor. She pulled at them, panicked, but they were not going to budge. They seemed to glow with an unnatural sort of light.

The imps backed off, and Katelyn finally had a second to process the situation. She felt her breath catch in her throat as the cloaked man with purple eyes and black horns came to stand before her.

She tilted her head down and gave him what she hoped was something even remotely resembling an intimidating or at least courageous expression.

“You’re the Demon Warlock,” she said, her voice sounding higher than she would have liked it to.

He grinned, bending down to reach her eye level.

“And you’re the lovely Princess Katelyn,” he said. “The beautiful Agapanthus, come to meet her true love in the forest.”

Katelyn’s mind was moving slowly, most likely because of the panic. It did finally get through, however, that he wasn’t supposed to know that nickname. Clover was the only one who knew it.

The Demon Warlock laughed at her expression. “I often know more than your people give me credit for,” he said, beginning a slow pace in a circle around her. “I know how to find what I’m looking for. I know how to solve the problems that arise, like a pesky little hero princess who could unknowingly contribute to something I  _ very much  _ don’t want or need. And I know a little secret the king and queen of this kingdom are keeping. Do you?”

Katelyn was at a loss for words, watching the end of his cloak train slide out of view behind her. 

“S-secret?”

“Why yes,” the Warlock said, sounding entertained. “Their little secret about the baby prince they hid in the woods all those years ago. You only discovered half the secret, however. You found the little boy. And you didn’t even know who he was!”

Katelyn’s eyes locked onto the Warlock’s as he passed in front of her again. The gears in her head were turning a million miles an hour.

“I… found… him? Who? Clover?”

The Demon Warlock laughed again, putting his hands behind his back. “Call him whatever funny little name you want. A prince is a prince, even if neither of you knows it. They thought by keeping his status from him they could hide him from me longer. They were wrong. Just as I knew he was my offspring when he was born, I knew how to track him down.”

Katelyn was genuinely lost now. It sounded like he was insinuating something absolutely insane. Two things, to be exact.

Both, that Clover was somehow Prince Travis…

...and his  _ son _ ?

The Demon Warlock let out one last small chuckle at the obvious bewilderment on Katelyn’s face. “Understandably, it is a lot to take in,” he said, taking the staff back out of his cloak. “The royal family is certainly the type to be secretive. It only makes sense that you would have no reason to suspect. Perhaps you can work it out after a little beauty rest. After all, I can’t have you getting to Travis right now. It’s crucial to me he doesn’t wake up. And though for you it will only be temporary, I can’t have you using that remarkable strength to escape, either.”

Katelyn didn’t have a moment to think or react or anything at all before he brought the staff down hard on her head.

She blacked out, her surroundings spinning away and out of sight.

~

Katelyn blinked awake.

But no, she wasn’t awake.

Where was she?

She felt lighter than usual, almost as if she could lift off the floor at any moment. She was somewhere mostly dark, a strange sort of golden shimmer floating through the air all around her. Soft orange and deep purple orbs floated around her, bouncing off each other lazily.

It definitely didn’t feel real. But it also felt a little too concrete to be a dream.

Off in the distance, she could see a short wall of something that appeared to be flames. Curiously, she began to make her way over to it. It appeared to be the only thing for miles, and it became more clear as she approached it. It was a circle of fire, about ten feet in diameter. What really grabbed her attention, however, was the boy sitting in the center of it with his knees pulled tightly to his chest.

Clover… or, Travis.

Katelyn came to a stop outside the circle of flames, watching him. His face was buried in his arms so that she could only see his bright white hair messily poking through. He was wearing a much more regal outfit than she was used to seeing him in.

“Travis?” Katelyn tried quietly, her voice echoing across the void. 

His head jerked up and he looked around wildly, searching for the source of the voice. He saw Katelyn and jumped up, eyes wide. The two of them watched each other for a second, unsure of what to say.

“How did you get here?” he breathed, taking a step closer. “And… how’d you learn my real name?”

Katelyn reached out across the flames, jerking back when they immediately rose wildly to her outstretched arm. She tried again, but the wall of fire followed her every time. Travis shook his head.

“I’m trapped in here,” he said. “I couldn’t even do anything about it. It was the Demon Warlock.”

The memory of the Demon Warlock calling Travis his offspring struck Katelyn again, and she looked up at his face. He was definitely the spitting image of his mother, with his bright green eyes and snow white hair. But something about his facial structure, and the way he held himself… she couldn’t deny it. The resemblance was there.

And then there was the thing she’d seen him do much earlier that day, when they were holding hands. His eyes had definitely glowed with the same purple light that the Demon Warlock’s did.

She wondered if that had anything to do with where they were now.

“How’d you get my name?” Travis repeated.

Katelyn exhaled slightly, trying to figure out how to explain. How much did he already know? “I came back,” she explained. “I changed my mind. Or, made a decision. I turned around and rode Samson back into the woods. The truth is that I thought I was betrothed to some prince I didn’t know, and I didn’t want to marry him. I didn’t even know who he was. All I knew was that he was in hiding and we were supposed to get married as soon as he turned sixteen, which was today.”

She glanced up at Travis, who was taking this in with his eyebrows furrowed. He stared at the ground, and then his eyes widened. He looked up at her. “But  _ my  _ sixteenth birthday- betrothed to- you AREN’T-?”

Katelyn’s lips twisted into something resembling a smile, maybe more of a grimace. Travis’s mouth dropped open.

“YOU’RE the princess I was supposed to marry?” he asked, running a hand through his hair. “All this time. Oh my goodness. I don’t even remember the name they told me, was it Kayla? Kim?”

“Katelyn,” Katelyn provided.

“Katelyn!” Travis said, looking up with a brighter expression. “It’s fitting. I should have known you were royalty. It makes sense.”

“That makes two of us.”

Travis’s eyes drifted down towards his outfit, the excitement fading from his face. She wondered if he’d ever worn anything like it before. She couldn’t imagine how insane it all must be for him, just suddenly being thrust into the world Katelyn had grown up in.

She bit her lip, watching him carefully. Now it was time for part two, the potentially more shocking detail. She desperately hoped he had found out on his own and she wouldn’t have to be the one to ask.

“He was waiting for me at your cottage,” she said, not taking her eyes off Travis. “The Demon Warlock.”

Travis approached the flames again, alarm on his face. “Did he do the light thing with you too? What does he have against us?”

Katelyn dismissed the vague confusion ‘the light thing’ provoked, shaking her head. “No, he said he was going to make sure I didn’t do something. I don’t know what. He knocked me out and kidnapped me. And… I think the grudge is more with you than me.”

“Geez Katelyn, I’m sorry. What do you mean?”

She stared at his completely innocent expression. He really didn’t know. The Warlock was right, the king and queen withheld more information than they were letting on. Well, moreso the queen.

She’d think more on that later.

“He, um… told me something,” she said, sitting down on her knees. Travis sat down with her, the flames dropping low so that they were still face-to-face. “You wouldn’t know this, but your mom and my mom used to be friends with him. Everyone knew one of them was closer to him, and a little more… uh, intimate. They all assumed it was my mom. But…”

The full truth revealed itself to Katelyn as she was explaining. “It must not have been. Queen Elizabeth- my mom- was sent into exile when I was a baby for no reason. Your mom, Queen Enki, had a baby with him. He didn’t know until you were born. Everyone assumed you were a perfectly legitimate son of the king. My dad always said it was a miracle, since people were certain King Terrence couldn’t have kids. But… after what the Warlock told me back at the cottage, I know he didn’t. That’s why the Demon Warlock wants you dead. He gave up some of his power by allowing you to be born, and the older you get the more power you sap from him.”

Travis’s expression changed so many times Katelyn couldn’t possibly be sure what he was thinking. One of the purple orbs drifted closer to them, and she realized she could barely make out some moving shapes on it. It looked almost like a hazy image of Travis, holding his arms out. It looked like his hands were covered in green and purple fire.

“His power…” Travis said vaguely, still staring at the ground. “...My dad?  _ How _ ?”

“It all makes sense,” Katelyn said, watching more orbs float past. “Doesn’t it? When we were babies, he put a curse on you saying that you’d be dead by the time you were sixteen. That must be the age you really start gaining magic power. My dad said the three wizards couldn’t do anything to undo it, but they did change it slightly so that you’d fall asleep instead of dying. I think it sounded pretty permanent. Except for one detail.”

Travis rolled up onto his knees, raising an eyebrow at her.

“Well,” Katelyn said, avoiding eye contact and feeling her face get warm. “The spell’s supposed to be broken by true love’s kiss.”

Neither of them said anything for a second. Katelyn didn’t know if he was still looking at her. She didn’t want to look.

Then he snickered.

She looked up, frowning. He had sat down all the way, and was watching her with a sly grin. “What the  _ heck  _ about this is funny?” she demanded. Travis flicked some of his hair out of his face dramatically, shrugging.

“You said you were coming back for me, right?” he asked. “That’s all I need to know. You are the only thing in this whole mess that I actually understand right now. How I feel about you and how I…  _ think  _ you feel about me. They’re the only things that make sense. If all that needs to happen to solve this is for you to come find me and kiss me…”

He shot Katelyn that little flirtatious smirk she’d seen too many times before. No matter how much she hated it, it made her heart skip a beat. “I’m not complaining. It’s about time.”

Katelyn rolled her eyes, chuckling against her will. Even trapped in some sort of magic dream, he was still very  _ him _ . The insanity and complicated nature of the situation seemed to melt away for just a moment as the two of them laughed quietly together.

Katelyn paused, staring around at the orbs again. “Hey,” she said suddenly, looking back at Travis sternly. “You being magic is cool and great and all. But no more accidentally casting stuff that binds us together mentally or whatever. It worked out well just this once but I’m certainly not pushing my luck after this. You can expect zero hand-holding from here on out.”

Travis laughed out loud, shaking his head. “Yes ma’am. I’ll keep that in mind next time my powers do things without me telling them to.”

Katelyn suddenly jumped as she felt herself rise up off the ground suddenly. The void began to saturate, fading into a bright white. She realized she must be waking up.

Travis, who was fading just as fast, watched her with a mixture of sadness and that same caring sort of admiration she was used to. She struggled to keep his face in focus for just a few more seconds. She found she wasn’t exactly eager to leave him again.

“I’ll find you, I promise,” she said, her voice sounding strange and far away. Travis smiled at her.

“I’ll be waiting.”

And then it was all gone, again.

~

The three wizards darted through the woods at lightspeed, winding around trees and traveling down the strangely well-worn path to the glen their cottage was in. They knew now the reason it was so clear was because Princess Katelyn had spent many days of her life coming down it.

It felt so strange for that to have been happening so often while the three of them were completely unaware. Travis was much better at keeping secrets than Dante had given him credit for.

It seemed secrets were becoming something of a theme.

It only took a moment for their worst fear to be confirmed as soon as they reached the house. One of the windows was hanging off its hinges, and the door was standing wide open. Dante sprung back to his normal size and headed inside, the other two following his lead. He came to a quick halt, however, when he saw inside.

The place had been absolutely trashed. The shelves had been knocked sideways, dishes and books scattered all over the floor. Bits of the wood paneling in the floor had come up somehow. In the center of it all, a single, silver and orange fingerless glove lay on the floor.

Dante picked it up, looking down at the symbol still barely visible on the palm of it. “This is Katelyn’s,” he said hopelessly.

“How could the Demon Warlock have gotten to her so quickly?” Laurence demanded to nobody in particular, setting a clay vase back on the table. 

“He’s always so ready,” Garroth said, staring at the glove as Dante put it in his pocket. “Always one step ahead of us.”

“Well,” Dante huffed, turning back to the door. “We’ll just have to work to keep up with him, then. He’s leaving us in the dust for the last freakin’ time.”

He walked out the door, hopping back up in a storm of sparks. He floated in midair with his bird wings, waiting for the other two.

“We’re- going to him, then?” Garroth asked, incredulously.

“Think of it as a rescue mission and not as a showdown,” Dante said, nodding at Laurence as he joined him. “We may not be able to take down the Demon Warlock but we sure as heck can rescue a princess.”

Garroth leapt up, sprouting wings and joining them in the air. “I guess that works for me,” he said.

The three of them turned, taking off into the sky and setting a course for the direction of the ruins in the mountains. Though the sky was pitch black and clouds obscured the stars completely, the enormous shadows of the mountains stood clearly against the backdrop. It had been known for some time that the Demon Warlock had chosen these ruins as his hideout and that he was creating an army of minions for himself. This generally caused people to stay far away from the mountains, even the particularly bold or adventurous. Flying directly towards the danger had a distinct feeling of flying directly into the belly of a beast.

But in they flew anyway.

The shape of the ancient, crumbling castle came into view through the fog as the trio passed over a tall set of hills. It was as enormous and labyrinthian as it was old and spooky, though it did have an eerie sort of majesty to it. It was exactly the kind of place someone like the Demon Warlock would choose to occupy. Stone towers loomed over the hills, and old crumbling stone passages and walls spread across the sides of the mountain like spider webs. Here and there, imps could be seen wandering around in groups carrying different kinds of weapons that seemed too tall for them.

Careful not to make a sound or attract any attention, Dante drifted down to the entrance of the crumbling drawbridge far away from where most of the movement was. The three wizards landed behind the stone arch, folding their wings behind their backs. The drawbridge’s chains were rusted in place and covered in layers of cobwebs, clearly showing how it had not been used in a very, very long time. It creaked loudly as Dante carefully stepped onto it, trying to get a better look at the castle before them through the thick fog he wasn’t entirely sure was natural.

“Dante!” Laurence hissed, pointing off to his left. Dante followed his gaze, then jumped when he saw a patrolling imp headed directly for where they were standing. He shot backwards, grabbing Laurence and Garroth’s arms and yanking them both with him behind a tall moss-covered pillar.

He carefully craned his neck back, looking around the side for the imp. He didn’t appear to have noticed them, and was still aimlessly walking up and down the bridge dragging around an enormous axe. 

Dante let out a brief sigh of relief, though his heartrate didn’t decelerate any. He pulled out his wand, nodding to the other two. They pulled theirs out, and they all wove them together, fluttering into the air as they shrank back down to a smaller, much less noticeable size. They zoomed up around the pillar, traveling along the long chain that spanned horizontally across the bridge. Dante was once again quite thankful for wings as he looked back at the bridge, which was balanced so precariously on the rocks it looked like if the imp sneezed, the whole thing would be gone for good.

The three of them approached an outer wall of the castle, and Dante searched for any kind of inconspicuous opening. His gaze locked on a gap in the stones, and he aimed towards it with Garroth and Laurence falling in close behind him. They landed on the small ledge provided by the uneven stones and squeezed through the gap, Dante turning around to check and make sure both that they had all made it and that no imps had taken notice of them.

As they walked carefully through the dark and dusty gap, a spider scuttled overhead. Laurence cursed loudly, his voice echoing around as Dante whirled around to shush him. Dante backed out of the gap into a dimly lit area. He turned around to take in their new surroundings, then violently jumped and flung a hand to his mouth to cover the gasp that had tried to escape him.

He was almost directly face-to-face with a sleeping imp.

The imp snored, sounding very much like a pig as it mindlessly stretched an arm in Dante’s general direction. Dante shot to the left, leaping off the stone ledge and zooming into the air with the others on his tail. They flew through the dark, musty hallways of the castle, dodging pieces of failing architecture and patrolling imps all along the way. Dante led the other two into a small, out-of-the-way hallway only to turn and dart back out again because it was full of imps. Seconds later, they had to loop around because what looked like a bridge leading somewhere important was actually a dead end blocked off by an enormous statue of a cloaked figure with huge black horns.

The three wizards, still the size of chess pieces with bird wings, landed on top of a headless gargoyle all hunching over in an attempt to catch their breath. Laurence leaned over the side, watching imps wander around far beneath them.

“Is there a  _ single  _ empty room in this place?” he panted.

Dante wasn’t listening, his eyes on a thin window on the mostly-decayed wall opposite them. A strange, fierce and flickering green light was coming from it.

Garroth followed Dante’s gaze, standing next to him to stare at the glow. The two of them glanced at each other, then back at Laurence. He raised an eyebrow at them, and the group stepped off the gargoyle to flap towards the window. They landed on the open stone window sill, looking down into the huge arena-shaped room that likely once used to be a courtyard or a ballroom.

An enormous bonfire had been lit in the center of the room, reaching so tall into the air that the bright green and purple embers that erupted from it mingled with the stars in the sky. It cast sharp shadows across the huge ring of imps surrounding the fire, all whom were dancing and celebrating around it like it was a party. Their loud and wild voices rang out and echoed off what was left of the walls.

“Geez,” Garroth mumbled, the green flickering flames reflecting in his eyes. “ _ They’re _ proud of themselves.”

Dante scanned the chaotic celebration, certain that the leader behind it all would be there somewhere. Sure enough, there was a huge stone throne against the far wall with various dark velvets draped across it. The Demon Warlock sat on the throne, watching the festivities with a disgustingly smug look on his face. A raven was perched on his staff, which he held with one hand.

Garroth spotted it, and tensed up next to Dante. “He  _ didn’t _ ,” he breathed, barely audible. Dante looked at him questioningly, but he shook his head.

“Later,” he whispered.

As they watched, the Demon Warlock leaned forward and said something to the raven. On a whim, Dante quickly pulled his wand out and pointed it towards where he sat, and a small glowing light appeared on the tip of the wand. The Warlock’s voice drifted out from the light.

“It really is too bad that the guest of honor couldn’t be here,” he was saying. With a dark chuckle, he glanced towards an entrance to a staircase leading down nearby. “Perhaps we should go check on her.”

“Her?” Dante repeated, his eyes widening as his head whipped around to look at the others.

He looked back, and the Demon Warlock had already gotten up out of his seat and was making his way towards the staircase. Dante nodded at the other two, and they all rose up and silently trailed behind him. They waited carefully at the top of the winding staircase, watching as the trail of his cloak disappeared into the darkness. Then, they flew downward, following the sharp curves of the stairs.

The long, dark staircase seemed to go on for ages. When it finally let out, it opened up into a tiny, cramped room with a collection of doors with iron bars attached. Most of the doors were rotting, and the stones had long since fallen out of the walls surrounding them. One door, however, at the far end, was still intact and looked very secure with glowing chains around the handle. This is the door the Demon Warlock approached, tapping the chains with his staff so they fell to the ground. He pushed open the door, creating a high creaking noise.

He stepped into the cell, and Dante, Laurence, and Garroth shot forward, surrounding the iron bars from the other side to see what was happening while still remaining out of sight.

Princess Katelyn was, indeed, the one in the cell. She sat still as a statue on a stone bench against the wall, her hands chained to the wall and her long, light blue hair hanging in her face. She didn’t even budge when the Demon Warlock came to stand before her.

The raven flapped a few times, hovering above the staff before heading back towards the door. Dante snatched his friends’ arms, yanking them out of the way as it flew out the window where they had been seconds ago. The three of them hung around another, much smaller barred window on the wall. Dante peeked over the edge between the rusted bars, watching as the raven landed on the ground. It shot upward in an explosion of black sparks, and when the sparks cleared, a young man stood in the raven’s place with matching jet black hair and blue eyes.

Ignoring the shock of watching the bird turn into a person, Dante’s mind started working. He looked so familiar. But why?

He noticed suddenly that Laurence and Garroth had found a window right next to them that must have had a view into the cell Katelyn was in, because they were hanging on to the stone ledge and watching whatever was inside. He flew beside them, looking inside at the Demon Warlock.

He looked down at Katelyn, laughing softly. “Such a depressing sight,” he said. “Why so glum?”

Katelyn said nothing. Her expression couldn’t be seen under her hair.

The Demon Warlock held his staff in front of him, and the orb on top began to resonate with a soft white light. The light expanded until it was a cloud in between the two of them.

“Not too far from here, King Terrence’s castle stands silent in the night,” the Warlock began, and a vague image of the familiar castle appeared in the cloud of white light. “There, in the tallest tower in the castle, lies the cursed young prince. Fate certainly works in mysterious ways, for this young prince is the very same peasant boy who won the heart of our noble princess all those years ago. Did you know that, your highness?”

Katelyn, who had briefly looked up to watch the vague revolving image of Travis fast asleep, turned her eyes up to glare at the Demon Warlock. He searched her expression, raising his eyebrows.

“Perhaps you did,” he said, sounding almost impressed. “Perhaps I underestimated the boy’s ability to see through the facade he was being kept under. He must be my son after all.”

The Demon Warlock let out a harsh laugh, and Dante turned to look at the two wizards hovering next to him. They all exchanged grim expressions. Had what he had claimed before really been true? Was Travis really HIS son, and not Terrence’s?

“I often regret how close I became to the lovely Queen Enki,” the Demon Warlock continued. “I never dreamed it would lead to her having a child. I sacrificed all I had to gain the power I deserved. My humanity, even. Something as human as passing on my legacy to offspring was never meant to happen. As long as that boy is dead to the world, I can continue to live. I will be able to continue despite my regrets. But you…”

He leaned in so that his face was inches from Katelyn’s. She leaned away as a twisted, mocking smile crossed his face. “ _ You  _ don’t regret my choices, do you? Without them, your handsome prince wouldn’t be here. You truly fell in love with him. And he loved you just the same. It’s so…”

He leaned in even closer, so that his face was nearly touching Katelyn’s. She flattened herself against the wall, unable to get any further away.

“... _ sickening, _ ” he growled.

He straightened back up, looking back to the white cloud his staff had created. “I’ve come to a decision,” he explained, waving his hand around the light. A hazy image of Katelyn’s own face appeared. “I’ll allow you to go through that door. But you’ll have to be patient, I’m afraid. I’m willing to keep you here and wait as long as it takes for you to give up. You’ll either grow old and lose your strength, or your will to live. I’ll give you every day of the rest of your life in this cell, until you’re unable to continue despite any efforts you may attempt to sustain. When that day comes, I’ll open this cell. I’ll allow you to crawl your way over the threshold, dragging yourself inch by inch with your final breath…”

He flung his hand across the image, and it was whisked away like a vapor of smoke.

“And I’ll watch with  _ true happiness  _ as the life leaves your body for good before you can ever reach that castle again.”

Katelyn looked at the Warlock with more venom in her expression than should be physically possible for a girl her age. The Demon Warlock cackled, turning and whisking the end of his cloak around with him. The three wizards watched him walk out of the cell, the door closing behind him and the chains magically re-adjusting themselves around the handle. Dante darted to the other window, watching as he began to make his way back up the stairs with the younger man behind him.

“ _ Sadist _ ,” Dante whispered with a sneer at the Demon Warlock’s retreating back. He realized a second too late that he had hissed it a bit too loudly when the dark-haired man turned around, looking all around the room quickly at where it had come from. Dante ducked down quickly, getting out of sight. He waited for almost a full minute, holding his breath. When he carefully peeked back through the window, both the Demon Warlock and his assistant were gone.

Dante exhaled in relief, drifting back over to where Garroth and Laurence were waiting by the rusted iron bars.

“He’s gone,” he whispered. “Let’s go.”

All three wizards hopped over the stone surface of the window sill, falling through the bars and landing on the floor of the cell. Katelyn’s head jerked up as they all shot back to regular size, red, green, and blue sparks shooting all around the room.

“Holy  _ mother _ ,” Katelyn breathed, her eyes darting around to look back and forth between them all. “What are-?”

“Shh,” Dante said, hurrying to the small window in the door to make sure nobody had lingered in the dungeon outside. “We’re getting you out of here.”

Dante and Laurence had pulled their wands out and were zapping the chains holding her to the wall. They fell to the ground with a chorus of clanging, and Katelyn rubbed her wrists where they had been seconds ago with a look of vague awe on her face.

Dante tapped the door with his wand, and it swung open silently. Katelyn jumped up, a fire in her eyes that hadn’t been there before.

“I believe this is yours,” Dante said, pulling the fingerless glove they had found in the cottage out of his pocket and handing it to her. She smiled, putting it on her bare left hand. She continued looking around at the three of them, her eyes wide.

“You’ve  _ gotta  _ be Travis’s uncles,” she decided. “Only makes sense you guys just happen to be wizards, too. I’m probably gonna find out, like, my mom’s a fairy or something soon. Nothing about this situation can surprise me anymore.”

“Sorry,” Laurence said with a shrug. “A lot of all this is news to us, too. I’m Laurence, and this is-”

“Dante and Garroth,” Katelyn finished for him, nodding at each of them as she said their name. “Travis talked about you a lot.”

“He certainly did a lot of talking, didn't he?” Dante said, raising an eyebrow. “How’d you already know he was the prince? He had no idea, and I find it hard to believe anyone’s that good a guesser.”

“I talked to him after he got put under the spell,” Katelyn explained quickly. “I think he accidentally linked us somehow using the magic he inherited from his dad. We worked everything out. Well… mostly. He’s still very out of commission, but I told him I was coming.”

“Good,” Dante said, nodding. “That’s why we came to get you. I mean, to rescue you, of course, but to break the spell.”

“Travis can use  _ magic _ ?” Garroth asked loudly, Laurence shushing him and flinging a hand over his mouth.

“He is the Demon Warlock’s son, after all,” Dante said with a soft frown as he held his wand up. “Katelyn, hold your arms up.”

Katelyn held her arms out in front of her, and Dante tapped both of them with his wand. One one arm, a huge silver shield shimmered into existence. On the other, Katelyn’s hand clenched around the hilt of a tall, gleaming sword. She stared at them both, mouth open.

“You’re gonna need those,” Dante said, grinning at her expression. 

“Well what are we waiting for?” she said, excitement evident in her voice. “Let’s get outta here.”

She led the way, running out the door with her shield close by her side and the sword in front of her. Dante, Laurence, and Garroth hurried behind her, following her through the broken, ancient dungeon and up into the twisting stairwell. They had barely taken three steps upward when Katelyn froze, Dante running full-force into her. He shook his head, looking ahead of her in confusion.

The dark haired young assistant stood in the stairwell, staring at them all in evident shock.

Without a word, he turned on his heel and sprinted up the remaining steps.

“Go, go, follow him!” Dante yelled, shoving Katelyn forward. It was of the utmost importance that they stopped him before he could alert anyone at all that they had busted their prisoner out. As they ran up the stairs and back onto level ground, Dante could hear Garroth’s voice echoing behind him. He paused as Garroth caught up to him, panting and grabbing his shoulder.

“Go- go with Katelyn! Get her out of here! I’ll take care of Zane!”

For one wild moment, Dante’s head felt like it was spinning in confusion. The urgent look on Garroth’s face combined with the name that sounded SO familiar-

Zane! Garroth’s BROTHER Zane! The one who had vanished years before!

“Yeah, yeah! Go!” Dante said breathlessly, turning and running off in the direction of the drawbridge with Katelyn on his heels. Laurence followed the two of them as Garroth split off, holding his wand by his side as he raced in the direction his brother had gone.

Dante, Katelyn, and Laurence sprinted through the ever-crumbling stone halls of the ruined castle, glowing flares erupting outside that could only be coming from Zane. A commotion was rising all around them, the steadily growing sound of imps realizing their prisoner was loose and taking to arms. A number of them flooded into the long corridor the trio was in, spotting the group and attacking. None of them could get too close, however, because of Katelyn’s newfound weapon slicing through the air and the combined power of two wizards.

They still had such a long way to go.

They burst through a stone entryway, leaving crowds of yelling imps behind them. Groups of them were beginning to form on the wall above them, pulling out bows and crossbows and aiming them wildly into the chaos. Several arrows missed Dante by centimeters, and a realization hit him. He sprung into the air in the familiar shower of sparks, hovering there at a much smaller size with his bird wings flapping frantically. He flew down next to Katelyn, searching the fighting crowd (which Katelyn was holding off impressively) for Laurence. He soon appeared next to him, having had the same idea.

“The arrows!” Laurence called to him over the noise, pointing his wand up at the line of archers. Dante understood, and the two of them began firing spells up at every slew of arrows that came down. The second the arrows crossed the thick, shimmering barrier, they transformed with a flash into harmless daisies. The flimsy flowers bounced off Katelyn’s shield, some of them falling and sticking in her hair.

“Thanks!” she called over her shoulder, crossing the bridge out into a courtyard-like area similar to the one they had seen earlier. Another crowd of imps bearing various tall weapons waited there, along with a group on top of a stone arch with huge pots of boiling water sending steam into the air. Katelyn’s attention was quickly yanked away from that when she noticed something beneath the arch.

“Samson!” she yelled breathlessly. The horse, recognizing its name, caught sight of Katelyn and began restlessly pulling at the chains holding it to the stones on the ground. Fending off a few attacking imps with her sword, she rushed towards the horse and brought the sword down hard on the chains. They clanked loudly, but didn’t even chip.

Dante looked up at the pots of boiling water, which were beginning to be tipped over the arch towards Katelyn and the horse.

“Laurence!” Dante screamed urgently, zooming forward to get rid of the chains on the horse. Laurence flung his wand out, a bright light hitting the water as it cascaded down. Every drop of it vanished, being replaced by a wall of bubbles that either sank lazily to the ground or blew away in the breeze.

Katelyn pulled herself onto Samson, balancing herself with her shield arm so that she could still wield the sword with the other. Laurence flew to her side as Dante shot upward, scanning the distance.

“We’re almost to the drawbridge!” he called down. “Go north!”

He flew down to join Laurence as they trailed quickly behind Katelyn, still fighting off hordes of imps as the horse galloped ahead towards their way out.


	7. chapter 7

~

Garroth huffed, still chasing after his brother.

Who happened to be a pretty decent runner.

“Zane!” he called after him as they approached yet  _ another _ one of a seemingly endless number of staircases. “Zane, PLEASE!”

“Leave me alone!” Zane’s voice echoed back down to him.

Garroth was momentarily distracted when he caught sight of Katelyn, now on horseback heading towards the drawbridge. Two airborne green-and-red glows zoomed after her.

“Right, duh!” Garroth muttered, pointing his wand at his back. Two white-and-blue bird wings appeared on his back, and he sprung into the air. He shot forward, catching up to Zane in seconds and tackling him to the ground. Zane yelled some profanities, wrestling his arm into his pocket and pulling out what looked like a stick straight from a tree. He tapped himself and turned back into a raven, wiggling out of Garroth’s grasp and frantically flying out a window.

Garroth shot after him, snatching him out of the air by the wing and flinging both of them down, pinning the bird to another set of stairs leading up to the exterior of a tower. Zane turned back into a human, struggling to point the wand back at himself. Garroth grabbed it out of his hand, chucking it over the side where it fell out of sight and presumably down the mountainside.

Zane yelled some more colorful language, fighting his way out of Garroth’s grasp and stumbling up the stairs to the door to the tower. He got to the door, desperately trying to open it. It was sealed shut, and it seemed to have been that way for a very long time.

He was forced to flatten himself against it, looking down reproachfully at his older brother.

“When you went missing, I had no idea what had happened to you,” Garroth said, his wand arm dropping to his side. “I could only guess you wanted to learn magic by yourself instead of dealing with the wizard’s guild. You were tired of people comparing you to me.”

“Don’t tell me what I already know!” Zane shot down at him. “They all  _ worship  _ you back there. This is the only place I’m welcome.”

“That’s not true-!”

“DON’T start with that,” Zane groaned, rolling his eyes. “Everyone was all  _ ohhh you’re Garroth’s little brother, Garroth the good wizard of the land! You got some big shoes to fill, donchya?  _ The Demon Warlock actually lets me be ME. He taught me more than you losers ever did. He treats me like an equal.”

“I admit I didn’t do all I could to include you growing up,” Garroth said sheepishly, staring at the mossy stone stairs. “And I probably could have done more to get everyone to treat you differently. But this is NOT where you belong. The Demon Warlock is a murderer. He tried to kill his own son so he could keep his power. Do you really REALLY believe he sees you as an equal?”

Zane looked infuriated, opening and closing his mouth but no words came out. He couldn’t think of a good response.

“Exactly!” Garroth said, taking a few steps closer. “I know I can be an idiot, but I love you, little bro. I do want you to feel important. But if we don’t stand up to the Demon Warlock, he’s gonna end up destroying the whole kingdom. Travis- one of the most innocent kids I know- is stuck under a spell right now because of him and he’s gonna stay that way unless we get Katelyn out of here. You’re smarter than this. You’re  _ braver _ than this. Don’t just let the stupid Demon Warlock take what he wants. He doesn’t deserve it.”

Zane’s eyes were locked onto Garroth, open wide with his eyebrows furrowed. 

“He- he’ll kill me if I don’t do what he wants me to,” he whispered.

“So  _ don’t let him _ ,” Garroth said, finally reaching him. “When this is all over, and we wake Prince Travis up, you will always be welcome back home. The Demon Warlock doesn’t control us and he can’t control  _ you _ .”

Before Zane could object, Garroth took him by the shoulders and pulled him in for a tight hug. Then he let go, diving over the side of the staircase and flying at top speed toward his friends on the other side of the castle fight.

Zane stood stationary as a statue, his arms still in the position they had been when his brother hugged him. He looked over to where the group of four was desperately fighting off the crowd of imps that was closing in around them, now considerably faster with Garroth’s help.

He frowned, then began to make his way back down the staircase and into the castle.

~

High above the commotion, the Demon Warlock was climbing the steps of the tallest tower in the ruins of the castle. He had seen the flares. He had heard the thunderous sound of hundreds of footsteps across the halls of the castle, shaking the already fragile architecture. The imps were not intelligent creatures. Overreactions and false alarms were in character.

But all it took was reaching the top of the tower overlooking the long stretch of the mountainside castle to make clear that there had been no misunderstanding.

The girl really was, miraculously, very much outside her cell. The army of imps did nothing but slow her down slightly as she sped further and further away on her horse. Three glowing balls of light flew so close to her it was as if they were attached.

The Demon Warlock’s rage started small, but grew wildly by the second. With every individual gallop her horse took, she grew closer to the drawbridge connecting the ruins to freedom.

It wasn’t going to happen.

He could never allow it to happen.

With a roar, he flung his staff in the direction of the bridge. It was far too old, unsturdy, and structurally unsound to ever be functional again. He would have to take a different approach.

Far below him, Katelyn lowered her torso close to Samson as he gained speed. He took a flying leap over a group of imps, and as soon as they landed, a couple tried to jump up at her. She caught them with her shield, launching them back a good distance. She felt the ground underneath them change as Samson hit the wooden drawbridge, the whole thing shaking slightly due to being balanced so precariously on the rocks.

She flinched as a huge bolt of lightning came out of absolutely nowhere, striking the bridge with a blinding flash and an ear-splitting crackle. 

And then the whole thing began to crumble.

“Samson, SAMSON, WOAH-!” Katelyn screamed, but the horse didn’t slow down in the slightest. He lept from bit to bit, stumbling a little every time. Katelyn clung to the horse’s neck as the very ground dissolved beneath them. Samson gave one last huge leap, though there was still obviously too much open space before them. There was no way they’d make it all the way across.

“ _ KATELYN _ !” Dante yelled hoarsely, pointing his wand desperately up at her from below at the same time Garroth and Laurence did the same. The three jets of sparkling light collided underneath Samson, and he catapulted himself off of them as if they were solid ground. His back hooves barely scraped the ledge on the side of the mountain, and he was able to scramble until all four legs stood solidly with Katelyn still clinging to his back.

She gaped down at the three wizards as they zoomed up to meet her.

“Oh my IRENE!” she gasped. “WE ACTUALLY DID IT!”

“Not done yet!” Dante reminded them hurriedly, pointing with his wand hand back at the highest tower still visible through the fog. The Demon Warlock stood atop it, his robes billowing in the unnatural wind all around him.

“To the castle!” Laurence called over the howling, and they set off again, down the path on the side of the mountain. Rocks fell and clouds gathered along the way as they sped onward, the familiar and inviting castle in the distance.

“Take the path around the woods, along the cliffs!” Garroth called to Katelyn the second Samson’s hooves hit the grass. She swerved to avoid a falling boulder, then began hurrying down the direction of the cliffs that made up the outskirts of the forest.

Back in the mountains, still on the tallest tower, the Demon Warlock let out another frustrated yell. “I AM IN CONTROL NOW!” he bellowed, swirling the staff in the air above him. A storm was brewing above his head, flashing shades of purple and green. “AND YOU! WILL! NOT! EVADE! ME!”

He flung his staff forward again, and the storm clouds funneled in the direction of the other castle silhouetted against the night sky. They spun and expanded, letting off forks of lightning as they went. They filled the air and the sky all around the horse traveling at top speed, swirling ahead and surrounding the castle. The storm grew and brewed restlessly, sending crashes of thunder rolling across the land. Everywhere lightning struck the ground, huge thorny patches broke through the dirt, growing at incredible speeds and branching out. They tangled together, reaching into the sky and creating a thick wall of dark, lethally sharp thorns.

Samson jumped back, barely missing a huge thorn vine that sprung out of the ground in front of them. Katelyn’s wide eyes took in the maze of sharp darkness before her, the horse rising up on his hind legs. Putting on a mask of determination, she held her sword forward and began slashing with all her strength. She cut down thorn patch after thorn patch, barely making a dent in the endless wall encircling the palace.

“Guys!” Dante called to the others, and they too got to work slashing down the huge black plants with magic. With the combined efforts of all four people, Katelyn was able to travel much faster through the tangles of dark vines and thorns. Her cape and hair got caught so many times that she stopped trying to slow down to make sure it didn’t happen. A particularly large thorne ripped a huge chunk of fabric off the cape, but Katelyn continued on, eyes focused ahead. Crashes of thunder and flashes of colored light exploded all around her as she fought through the maze of branches, steadily gaining speed as she approached the much studier-looking drawbridge of the castle.

A feeling of hope and triumph exploding in her chest, Katelyn reached the inner ring of thorns. Samson leaped over a shorter patch, and Katelyn swung her sword overhead to chop off the long thorny branch as the horse’s hooves hit the path leading up to the drawbridge.

“NO!” The Demon Warlock’s voice boomed across the sky.

With an enormous bolt of lightning, he rose into the air above the highest tower and twisted, zooming forward with the storm clouds. He shot towards the palace, more thunder rumbling across the sky.

Inches in front of Katelyn, the lightning and chaotic vortex of dark clouds slammed into the ground. It began to grow, sending Samsom scrambling backwards so quickly Katelyn lost her balance, sliding off him and clattering to the ground with her shield underneath her. Katelyn jumped to her feet, watching the vortex climb higher and higher into the air. Dante, Laurence, and Garroth flew beside her, wands at the ready. They all eyed the huge mass, confusion and anticipation evident on their faces.

The clouds began to fade, and Katelyn’s heart stopped.

“Holy  _ crap, _ ” she breathed.

Before them was a dragon almost the size of the castle itself. Its scales were a mixture of gleaming black and purple, its eyes glowing a blinding yellow-green, its head adorned with two enormous razor-sharp black horns. It flung its head into the air, and a column of fire erupted from its mouth, lighting up the night sky as if it were day.

“Didn’t know he could do that,” Dante whispered next to Katelyn.

The dragon lunged forward, bright green fire raining down all around it as it shot toward Katelyn. Out of instinct, she rose her shield in front of her face as she ran backwards, the fire curling around the sides but ultimately staying away from her. The dragon’s huge head shot towards her again, snapping. Katelyn swung her sword, barely missing the snout. The wizard’s spells bounced harmlessly off the dragon’s sales as it pushed forward, forcing the four fighters away from the castle and towards the tall cliffs it was situated upon.

Katelyn backed up the hill, swinging her sword and rolling out of the way as the dragon lunged for her over and over again. The blade ran across the tough exterior of the dragon’s face only a few times, leaving miniscule scratches on the scales. She yelped as one of the tree-sized yellow teeth snagged on her cape, yanking it upward. It tore the cape clean off, flinging Katelyn down to the ground in the process. She thrust her sword into the air as she threw herself out of the way again, the sword ricocheting off the dragon’s jaw.

Dante could feel his resolve crumbling as he fired a spell at the dragon’s eye, causing the dragon to roar and swing its head around. Katelyn was almost at the cliff’s edge, the battle causing rocks and dirt to slide down the side.

The Demon Warlock had made himself nearly invincible.

Dante couldn’t bring himself to admit it, but they were losing. For all the knowledge of magic he did have, he just couldn’t conceive of a way to defeat this enormous dragon.

Katelyn hopped from one boulder to another, temporarily reaching a higher ground than the dragon. The dragon reared back, shooting another blast of emerald-green flames into the air that seemed to boil the very oxygen all around Katelyn. Katelyn’s foot slipped, and she looked back in alarm. She had reached the edge of the cliff. There was nothing but open air behind her.

“Your sword!” a voice yelled. Unsure of whose voice it was but obeying through her panic, Katelyn raised her sword as the dragon focused on her once again with its glowing eyes. A jet of shimmering light flew out of nowhere, colliding with her sword. The blade lit up with the shimmering light, all the reflections in it becoming much sharper somehow.

She only had a second to stare at it in awe and confusion before she realized the dragon was lunging for her again. With a yell, Katelyn drew her arm back and then threw the sword with all her strength at the quickly approaching beast.

It hurtled through the air, then lodged itself into the dragon’s chest firmly with another explosion of shimmering light. The dragon stumbled back, rearing its head back and letting out an ear-splitting shriek. Panting, Katelyn flung herself out of the way as the dragon swayed around for a moment and then begun to fall forward. It missed her by inches, slamming into the ground with an impact that shook the ground.

Katelyn sat on her knees on the ground, catching her breath and watching as the dragon began to shrink. The scales faded away, and the sword fell out and clattered to the ground a few feet away.

A bundle of motionless dark robes lay on the ground, a pair of dark horns visible underneath.

A silence followed, the only sound being the howling wind as the storm clouds and lightning faded away. In the distance, the remaining thorns wilted and fell to the ground.

Dante, Laurence, and Garroth appeared one by one and dropped down by Katelyn’s side. They looked down at the rag-doll-like form of the Demon Warlock, amazement on their faces.

“I didn’t recognize that spell,” Laurence said, still slightly breathless. 

“Me neither,” Dante said, surprised. “I thought one of you cast it.”

“I think I know who did,” Garroth said, watching as someone appeared over the side of the cliff.

Zane flew into view, two raven wings on his back and his wand raised. It glimmered with the same shimmery light that had struck Katelyn’s sword.

He landed carefully in front of the bundle of a cloak, getting down on one knee and looking carefully at the body.

“He’s not dead yet,” Zane said, looking up at the others. “That spell was just enough to weaken him for good. He won’t be able to recover. All you have to do now is deliver the final blow.”

Still shocked from the sudden appearance of the fourth wizard, Dante turned to look at Katelyn. Her eyes were on the sword laying on the ground in front of her, which was still dripping dark crimson.

“No,” she whispered.

“What?”

Katelyn pushed herself to her feet, taking the handle of the sword as she stood. She approached the Demon Warlock, who still wasn’t conscious.

“It’s not my place,” she said, looking down on him. “I’m going to let Travis decide what to do with him.”

The wizards looked around at each other in surprise. Zane squinted at her, raising an eyebrow. “Why?” Dante asked.

Katelyn dragged the sword across the grass, wiping some of the blood off. With the clean tip of the blade, she tipped the Warlock’s chin toward her.

“This guy is responsible for all the stuff Travis has had to go through,” she said, venom in her gaze again. “His selfishness almost got Travis killed. If anyone should be the decider of his fate, it should be his son.”

Dante looked at Laurence, who shrugged.

“I see what you mean,” Garroth said. The three of them stepped forward, pointing their wands at the body. It floated upward, the cloak billowing all around it. Glowing rope wrapped itself tightly around him, binding all his limbs in place. A thick, shining bubble appeared around him, glowing several different colors. The three wizards held their wands towards the bubble, keeping it floating in the air.

“This should hold him,” Dante said. “Now, let’s go.”

Katelyn nodded, turning quickly and setting off at a fast pace towards the drawbridge. The three wizards hurried behind her, the bubble trailing behind them. Katelyn ran across the wooden bridge, her footsteps thumping hollowly on the sturdy material. She entered the courtyard, looking around with wide eyes at the deep blue fog hanging over the scene. The people, originally there for the celebration, were still very much asleep and slumped over one another. The soft sound of breathing filled the air, Katelyn’s footsteps on the stone floor ringing out as she walked around.

Her eyes drifted to the tallest tower, which stood out against the airbrushes of rose-gold in the sky as the sun began to rise.

She ran to a set of stairs, making her way towards it.

It didn’t take long for her to find her way to the winding staircase that led to Travis. There were no more sleeping people around, and a strange but calm silence stretched across the halls that Katelyn ran through. She could feel herself getting closer to Travis. It was as if an invisible rope tied between the two of them was loosening.

She walked up the staircase, small windows here and there casting golden light in window-shaped beams onto the stone walls. The sun was rising on the horizon, chasing away the darkness of night and the unnatural storm that had been raging only moments before. When Katelyn reached the door leading into the room the tower held, the wizards hung back.

“We’ll give you two some time alone,” Dante said with a subtle wink, turning and nodding at the other two. They disappeared back down the staircase with the shining bubble.

Katelyn turned back to the door, pushing it open.

She stepped across the wooden floor, entering the strangely cool room. The royal-looking bed was in the center of the room, and it immediately grabbed her attention before anything else could. Barely even bothering to take in the rest of the room, Katelyn approached the bed without taking her eyes off the sleeping figure on it.

Travis looked just like he had in the dream they’d shared, except now there was a gold and green crown placed on his head. He looked incredibly picturesque, Katelyn had to admit. There was even a white rose in his hands. It was nothing short of painting material.

His chest gently rose and fell as she sat down next to him, looking at his face. She could feel the moment weighing down on her, the fate of both her best friend and the kingdom hanging in the balance.

But he was more than her best friend. They both knew it.

Her eyes lowered down from his closed eyes to his lips. She’d never kissed anyone before, and certainly didn’t spend much time thinking about it. The time she did spend on it, however, had mostly been about him.

Fitting that when the time finally came, it was such an important one.

Katelyn leaned down, carefully hovering just a centimeter away from his face. She then pressed her lips to his, kissing him.

It was only for a moment, but she could feel the fireworks going off in her head and in her chest. She drew back slowly, watching his face.

Three breathless seconds passed. Four.

The moment that followed those four seconds felt supernatural in every sense of the word. The sunrise reached the topmost window of the tower, soft peach and gold light spilling across the floor into the room and shining on both of their faces. It felt like an invisible heavy cloud lifted, drifting into the air never to be seen again.

Travis’s eyebrows twitched, and then his eyes blinked open.

He inhaled, looking mildly stunned for a second. His eyes locked onto Katelyn’s, and the stunned expression melted into a little grin.

He pushed himself up into a sitting position, rubbing the side of his head with one hand. “Good morning,” Katelyn said jokingly, her voice still hoarse.

Travis looked down in surprise at the rose in his hand, then back up at Katelyn. “You came,” he said, the small smile growing.

Katelyn shrugged, feeling her own face twist into a smile that matched his. “I said I would, didn’t I?”

Travis laughed, reaching forward and putting the white rose behind her ear. “You did. I don’t know why I’d ever be surprised.”

Katelyn stood, holding out a hand.

“Come on,” she said as he took it. “You’ve been napping for long enough. We’ve got a kingdom to get back in order. And I need to see your uncles about a more appropriate outfit.”


	8. chapter 8 (final)

~

All over the palace, the sunrise was streaming into the crowds of awakening people. In the Grand Hall, outside in the surrounding rooms, and in the streets and nearby village people were coming to, getting back up as a steady stream of voices began to fill the air again.

Just as the spell had lifted on Travis, the spell was lifting everywhere else. Confusion paired with an unexplainable sense of relief or happiness set in as people ran around to each other, trying to figure out what had happened. The sun was already rising on a new day. Was the party over? Where had it gone?

The sunlight shone into the Grand Hall as torches and candles re-ignited, filling the room with a friendly golden light as people lifted themselves off the floor. At the very back, the three royal figures were just waking up. King Eric, who had been leaning against Terrence’s throne, jerked awake with a disgruntled-sounding snore. Terrence’s head also shot up, his eyes darting around the room wildly. Enki shook her head a few times, frowning.

“Darn wine,” Terrence finally decided, blinking hard and rubbing his face. “I never know when I’ve had too much. Haven’t the slightest what I’ve been doing the past few moments. Eric, were you saying something?”

“Huh?” Eric said, still looking disoriented.

“You were saying something about Katelyn.”

Eric squinted into the distance, clearly thinking hard. His eyebrows shot up as he remembered, and he began wringing his hands again. Enki noticed the strange habit and squinted back at him.

“Is something wrong?” she asked.

Eric seemed to come to a decision, yanking his hands away from each other and balling them into fists by his side. “Yes- yes, but no,” he stuttered, not looking at his friend. “See, I met Katelyn before the festivities began, and she made a decision I can’t help but support her on, being her life and all, and-”

For a second time, Terrence paused Eric before he could finish by holding a hand up in front of him. He was looking at the grand staircase on the wall to their right, eyes wide. A hush fell over the crowd as everyone else noticed them, too.

Travis and Katelyn made their way down the velvet-covered stairs, arm-in-arm. Travis still wore the regal green and brown outfit with his golden crown, but Katelyn had donned a long, almost shimmery beige gown with gold accents at the top and a sky-blue cape. The whole outfit had a sort of feel reminiscent of a feminine warrior. She wore a belt with a sheath attached, a sword inside.

The two of them had matching smiles on their faces, both having an air of something like smugness to them, like they were both in on a joke nobody else in the Hall had heard. They practically radiated the light the sunrise was providing.

“Travis-!” Enki breathed from behind Terrence. He understood the awed tone his wife was using. He hadn’t laid eyes on his son in sixteen years, and the final reveal was not disappointing.

The crowd parted as the couple reached the floor, making their way over to the set of thrones. Katelyn smiled at the incredibly baffled expression on her father’s face as Travis took his arm out of hers to approach his parents.

Enki, completely incapable of standing where she was, rushed ahead of her husband to hug Travis. He laughed when she threw her arms around him, Terrence smiling at the shameless show of affection. Laughter and conversation broke out around the Hall, everyone happy to see the son reunited with his parents.

Katelyn walked back to stand next to Travis, linking her arm in his again and giving him a meaningful expression. He turned to his father as the two of them took a few steps closer to the throne.

“Welcome home, son,” Terrence said, beaming.

Travis almost flinched, but caught himself. He glanced at Katelyn, who nodded encouragingly. 

“Thanks,” Travis said, smiling weakly back at the king. “We actually have something of a gift for you. It’s… almost a trade, you could say. We come bearing good news and bad news.”

Terrence’s smile shifted slightly, some of the brightness fading. “What does that mean?” he asked.

Travis turned to look to the entrance of the Grand Hall, where an outburst of loud talking had broken out. The crowd was parting again, making way for the three wizards walking across the floor and through the tables. Their wands were raised above their heads, carrying along the large, shimmering multi colored bubble. Anyone could look inside it, and see the outline of a person crouched down. The person clearly had two twisted dark horns on his head.

“ _ The Demon Warlock _ ?” the crowd whispered.

“How?”

“What have we missed?”

Terrence stared at the trio, his eyes going back and forth in disbelief between them and the prisoner they held in the air. When they reached the thrones, they all bowed deeply.

The royals were at a loss for words.

Eric finally laughed, though it was more of a sputter. “I certainly hope this is the good news!” he finally managed.

“Oh, it is,” Travis said, a smirk crossing his face. He hadn’t taken his eyes off his mother, who had gone quite pale.

“Did- did you do this?” Terrence asked the wizards in amazement. “Did you prevent the curse?”

“Hardly,” Dante said, shaking his head with a smile. “The curse played out exactly as it was foretold. We thought we could avoid the blame by casting the same sort of spell on the palace to keep everyone from knowing of our failure. Lucky for us, we weren’t the only ones working for a better ending. Princess Katelyn possesses the pure and noble heart that was needed to defeat the Demon Warlock. We didn’t even think of the spell that was used to bring him down to this state- help really does come from the most unexpected places. Because of all the Warlock- or Michael, as he was originally called- did to Travis, we left his fate in Travis’s hands.”

All eyes were turned to Travis, who’s face flushed due to an amount of attention he was nowhere near used to. Katelyn suppressed a grin at his obvious discomfort. Sometimes with his personality, it was easy to forget that he grew up with such little human interaction.

He cleared his throat, walking to stand in front of his mom.

“The D- uh, Michael and I had a chance to see each other face-to-face before the spell was cast,” he said, directed only to her though everyone else could hear. “I… know where I really came from.”

The queen’s face, if possible, grew even paler.

“I know what that means for you,” Travis whispered, stepping towards his mother. “Which is why I want to do this. This is your chance to redeem yourself- not to me, but to everyone else.”

He reached over, pulling the sword out of Katelyn’s sheath. The three wizards lowered their wands, and the bubble began to drift onto the steps before the thrones. The colors faded away, and the powerless Demon Warlock was revealed on his knees with several glowing ropes wrapped around him. The audience let out a collective gasp, backing away hurriedly.

As Travis offered the sword out to his mom, Terrence finally began to catch on.

He looked back and forth wildly between Travis and Enki, pointing at both of them in turn and then Michael. His face was turning red.

“What- what does this mean? Enki, what is he talking about?” he demanded, his voice cracking.

Enki took the sword from her son, hands shaking. Her eyes were on Michael, who had finally lifted his head to look at her. A cruel grin crossed his face, and he let out a low chuckle.

“It’s true,” he muttered. “This woman was never fully yours, Terrence. There will always be those loyal to me where you can’t control them. Even where you least expect it.”

Still shaking like a leaf in the wind, Enki took a few timid steps toward Michael with the sword hanging by her side as her husband stood in speechless disbelief behind her. Michael smirked up at her.

“I know you’re still mine, Enki,” he whispered. “You could never kill me. You won’t bring yourself to. You still love me like you did sixteen years ago.”

The whole Hall seemed to hold its breath as everyone stood still, still like stone. Enki inhaled deeply, then exhaled to the floor. She looked back up, meeting Michael’s eyes.

“You,” she said, her voice barely a whisper. “Do not own me.”

Travis felt Katelyn grab his hand, both of their eyes wide and staring at the scene before them. 

“I may have loved you then,” she continued, her voice becoming stronger. “But I was young. I was stupid. That is in the past, I assure you. Not a day goes by that I don’t regret ever allowing myself within a kilometer of you. Except- I can’t fully regret it. Not because of you, but because of my amazing, brave son. He is the only good thing that came of associating myself with you. He, I assure you, is thousands of times the person you could ever hope to become.”

Travis squeezed Katelyn’s hand, vision blurring slightly. Some moisture was building in his eyes without him meaning it to.

Michael seemed to be out of taunts to say, which was not what he had planned. The silent rage on his face envied the expression Terrence was making, and he began wriggling under the ropes. 

“That boy belongs to me just as much as you do,” he growled. “I DO NOT answer to you royal weaklings. It is in all of your best interests to let me GO before-!”

What would happen, nobody found out. Enki surged forward, swinging the sword horizontally through the air without another word. The crowd gasped again and several screams pierced the air as Michael’s head toppled off his shoulders and rolled across the ground. His body fell to the ground next to it.

A shock-filled silence filled the Hall, seeming to stretch across the entire palace. Nobody dared move, except for Enki, who slowly straightened up while breathing heavily. She looked down at Michael’s body, tossing the sword to the side.

Miraculously, the next sound was soft applause from somewhere in the crowd.

The sound grew and grew, more and more people joining in. Soon, the entire Grand Hall was cheering, whooping and applauding wildly in celebration. People threw wine goblets in the air, so red and white liquid rained all over the place, adding to the puddles of the stuff already on the ground. A few people even danced, making little groups all around the Hall and spinning around each other joyfully.

The Demon Warlock was gone for good.

Enki finally turned around, her head down. She looked up at her husband, already bracing herself. He was clenching his hands by his side, opening and closing his mouth so often he looked like he was talking with no words coming out. 

“You-” he finally got out. “I-”

He moved jerkily like he was going to rush at her, but Eric sprinted forward and grabbed him by the arms. Travis ran to his mom, hopping in front of her as Eric turned King Terrence around to face him. 

“Don’t do anything rash,” he said forcefully. “I know. I understand. Trust me, you know this. You can speak to her once you’ve had time to process.”

Still gripping Terrence’s arms, he began to lead him towards the staircase Travis and Katelyn had come down earlier. Enki stepped around Travis, carefully moving in the direction Terrence was going.

“Please find it in yourself to forgive me,” she whispered, and Travis was sure there was no way Terrence could hear her over all the chaos and commotion. But he turned to look back at her, hands still clenched.

He unclenched them, sighing.

“I need time,” he said slowly. “We will see.”

He then turned again, following Eric up the stairs and out of sight.

Travis turned back to Katelyn, at a complete loss for words. The two of them stared at each other with the celebration raging on around them, their open mouths turning into disbelieving smiles.

“We did it?” Travis asked.

“We did it,” Katelyn laughed, throwing her arms around him. A group of incredibly flustered servants had made their way into the room and were working on dragging the body away from the party, two or three desperately scrubbing the dark bloodstains all over the steps. 

“Let me get that,” Dante said quickly, running forward and pointing his wand at the mess. The blood vanished, and a multicolored bubble surrounded the body. It floated a few inches off the ground, the servants staring at it speechlessly.

“You can just, kinda, push it wherever,” Dante explained upon seeing their baffled expressions.

“Dante?” a voice called in disbelief.

His head jerked up, and Travis also searched the wild celebration for the voice. A young woman stood a few feet away with a plate of chicken wings. She had long, dark red hair and wore a grey headband and brown robes.

Though Travis didn’t recognize her, he didn’t need to. All he had to do was take one look at Dante’s face when he saw her.

“Nicole,” he told Katelyn with a grin.

“NICOLE!” Dante yelled, his voice going up a few octaves. He sprinted down the steps toward her, and she threw the plate aside to catch him as he tackled her. Travis suddenly felt very strongly like he should look anywhere else as the two of them began kissing with considerable passion.

“Oh goodness. Oh wow,” Katelyn said, not bothering to avert her eyes. Travis laughed putting an arm around her.

“You know… now that we’re getting married and all,  _ we _ could do stuff like that,” he said, nudging her with an expression he hoped looked at least a little attractive. Instead of hitting him or yelling or something like usual, she laughed at the ground.

“Not anytime soon, Romeo,” she said, nudging him back. “The kiss today was just the first step. You’re gonna have to be patient.”

“I can do that. I waited this long.”

Katelyn laughed again, shaking her head.

“I fought off an army of imps and just about killed a dragon today. And somehow I  _ still  _ can’t handle you.”

“Occupational hazard.”

The small collection of people bearing instruments in the corner, which almost everyone had forgotten was there, struck up a slow, but hopeful tune. All around the Hall, people swayed to the music, a few splitting into couples to dance together. Travis even saw some of the servants dancing together.

He also saw Enki slip away through one of the entrances, exiting unnoticed due to the commotion.

He decided to leave well enough alone.

“Let’s see if you’re as bad at dancing as you are flirting,” Katelyn said, grabbing Travis’s arm and pulling him down the steps toward the large open ring in the center of the crowd. Travis laughed out loud as she pulled him, catching Dante’s eye on the way.

“You’re on your own, kid,” Dante said with a shrug, Nicole’s arms around his shoulders. Laurence and Garroth watched from the balcony, completely unable to breathe due to their laughter. Dante watched Travis be dragged to the dance floor through squinted eyes.

“I still think it’d look better in red,” he mumbled.

Katelyn stopped in the center, taking his left hand and putting her other hand on his shoulder. Out of instinct, Travis put his other hand around her waist.

“You ever done this before?” Katelyn asked as they began to make their way through the steps.

“Laurence taught me some,” he admitted, stumbling through a few parts. “I was little then, though. Don’t think for a second I’m an expert.”

“No problem,” Katelyn said with a smug look. “I’ve been taking professional lessons since I was old enough to walk. I’ll do good enough for the both of us.”

“Be my guest.”

She laughed, a breathless and festive sound. Travis couldn’t help but laugh with her. The two of them swirled around the floor, moving gracefully to the sound of the music as if they’d been doing it every day for all their lives.

  
  
  
  


~~~

EPILOGUE

  
  


It was said that none of the people involved in the events of the Demon Warlock’s curse came out on the other side the same as before. A powerful wizard had to face the consequences when he refused to be humble. A king was forced to learn forgiveness. And of course, two young lovers were reunited against all odds.

It was a fairytale the world wouldn’t soon forget. 

Though the princess Katelyn was more than happy to end up with Prince Travis, they both agreed they would need some more time before they were ready to officially be married. Agreeing that the time for change had come, their fathers allowed it. Travis was glad to have more time to get to know his parents, and to learn the ways of being a royal. The three good wizards were glad that the task of raising the prince was out of their hands, but they were ecstatic when they were asked to assist him in learning his newfound magic powers.

Queen Enki vanished for a long period of time, nobody absolutely certain where she’d gone. Many theorized that she’d gone to live with Elizabeth in exile until it was time to return. When it was, Elizabeth was allowed to return with her.

It was a day of mixed feelings, but mostly celebration at the homecoming of the two queens.

In hopes of preventing another wizard like the Demon Warlock from ever walking the earth again, many wizard guilds took up new ways of teaching and including those with magical powers. Young wayward wizards would turn up here and there, some unsure of how they’d gotten there in the first place. Some claimed that an anonymous wizard, a vigilante of the sorts, was the one finding these young people and bringing them where they needed to go before they made choices they regretted. This was the same secret wizard who often turned up when houses caught fire or when small children fell in rivers, mysteriously fixing problems while remaining unseen.

Those who had caught glimpses of him, though, swore he had black hair that hung over light blue eyes.

When the day of the two young royal’s wedding did finally arrive, neither of them had an ounce of regret. 

And though it had taken several long stories, worlds of hurt, lies, self-discovery, magic, and more, everyone could agree in the end-

They were all living happily ever after.


End file.
